Holders Barcelona face Arsenal in the Champions League Round of 16
The look on the face of Arsenal’s club secretary David Miles said everything. His mouth was set in a straight line, but the grim stare was clear enough: not again! After drawing Monaco in the last 16 of the Champions League last season, a touch of fortune of which it failed to take advantage, Arsenal went back to the habit of being paired with the hardest possible opponent. It lost to Barcelona at this stage in 2010 and 2011, and Bayern in 2013 and 2013, and having drawn the reigning champion again, the probability is of a sixth straight exit in the last 16.
“It’s probably the tie of the round,” said Miles, who revealed his family had told him not to bother coming home if Arsenal drew Barca. “It’s not going to be easy and it’s probably the team that most Arsenal fans would have wanted to avoid at this stage. But the draw has given us Barcelona and it’s up to us to make a good fist of it.”
Arsenal remains deeply inconsistent but it can perhaps draw some solace from the fact that at its best it probably is better at pressing now than it was then, and it was in that discipline that Barca really outdid it in those two previous ties. It may have improved, but then there is an argument that this Barcelona, with its front line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, is potentially even better than the side of 2011. Certainly it has a great variety of approach, capable of playing far more quickly through midfield. In that regard, it would be a major benefit to Arsenal if Francis Coquelin is back from injury by the time is played in February.
That wasn’t the only familiar pairing; of the eight ties, four are repeats of games that have been played in the last three seasons and one of then, PSG against Chelsea, is being contested for the third time. That perhaps suggests how rigid the stratification of European football has become; the same sides keep winning the groups and the same sides keep finishing second.
Competing with Arsenal against Barcelona to be the stand-out tie of the round is the clash of the Italian champion, Juventus, with the German champion, Bayern. They last met in the quarter-final in 2013 when Bayern won both legs 2-0 on its way to lifting the trophy.
Juve, after a miserable start to the season is growing into form, while Bayern, having won its first 10 games of the season has shown (by its own absurdly lofty standards) slight signs of vulnerability of late. It’s still taken 44 points out of a possible 48 in the league though and its only dropped points in the Champions League were in the defeat to Arsenal. Juve’s hope is that Bayern’s form follows the pattern of the last couple of seasons and tails away slightly after the winter-break.
This is the third season running Chelsea has faced PSG at this stage. PSG was probably the runner-up everybody wanted to avoid, while Chelsea, in such bizarre form this season, is nothing like as daunting as it once was. Both previous ties have finished 3-3 on aggregate, Chelsea winning the earlier tie on away goals and PSG the latter. In retrospect it was in the second leg against PSG last season that Chelsea’s poor form began; playing 10 men it twice took the lead but couldn’t either finish the game off or hold PSG off. For opposite reasons – PSG because it's dominating its domestic league and Chelsea because it is way off the pace – both sides will probably be prioritizing the Champions League come February.
The other Premier League side, Manchester City, got a relatively kindly draw and will face Dynamo Kyiv, with the game in Ukraine being played being close doors as a punishment for racism on the part of Dynamo’s fans. That is sure to antagonize City fans who were denied a trip to Moscow when CSKA faced a stadium ban and argued then that they were being punished for the offenses of others. This is probably the best Dynamo side in at least a decade having been galvanized by Serhiy Rebrov but it’s still a far kinder draw than it could have been.
Real Madrid’s reward for topping its group is an intriguing tie against Roma, which qualified with only six points and is in a patch of dismal form. Both teams, it’s safe to assume, will be playing rather better than they are now in February.
In a draw that felt very familiar there will at least be one new face in the last eight as Gent face Wolfsburg, neither of whom have even been to the last 16 before.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND OF 16
| GENT | vs. | WOLFSBURG |
| ROMA | vs. | REAL MADRID |
| PSG | vs. | CHELSEA |
| ARSENAL | vs. | BARCELONA |
| JUVENTUS | vs. | BAYERN MUNICH |
| PSV | vs. | ATLETICO MADRID |
| BENFICA | vs. | ZENIT |
| DYNAMO KIEV | vs. | MANCHESTER CITY |
