By: Nana Kwame Bediako
The UEFA Champions League (UCL), knockout stage has been drawn with some mouthwatering ties at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. The knockout games will begin in February 2024.
Notable teams like Manchester United, Sevilla, AC Milan, etc. all bowed out of the competition, leaving no space for them in the knockout draw of the UFEA Champions League.
Last season finalist, Inter Milan will be looking forward to causing an upset when they clash it out with Spanish big boys Atletico Madrid in the Champions League knockout stage. The two teams have created some avenues of excitement in the Champions League in the past years, both making it to the final in some of the editions from 2016 to 2023.
FC Porto and Arsenal will take on each other, having been incredible in their efforts to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage.
The draw saw defending champions Manchester City go against Danish side FC Copenhagen. The latter was in the same group as Manchester United, who are city rivals of Manchester City. They finished ahead of the Red Devils with a memorable victory in Denmark.
Seria A champions Napoli will play Laliga Champions, FC Barcelona in a repeat of last year’s Europa League contest, but this time, both teams are looking to settle on the biggest European club competition.
14-time champions Real Madrid will battle it out with RB Leipzig to separate the boys from the men in the knockout stage of the competition. Real Madrid are on a 100 percent record in the competition this season, winning all their group games.
Bayern Munich will be looking to settle things with Lazio after claiming the ultimate in Group A, where they sent Manchester United packing in their last group game.
Full draw below:
Porto vs Arsenal
Napoli vs Barcelona
PSG vs Real Sociedad
Inter vs Atletico Madrid
PSV vs Dortmund
Lazio vs Bayern
Copenhagen vs Manchester City
RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid
