Defending champions Real Madrid, who recently eliminated Manchester City in the play-offs, will host city rivals Atletico in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 ties.
The two rivals from Madrid faced each other in the competition for four consecutive seasons in the past decade, with Real winning every encounter.
They claimed victory in the finals of 2014 and 2016, in the quarter-finals in 2015 and the semi-finals in 2017.
The team that wins that matchup will move on to face either PSV Eindhoven or Arsenal in the quarter-finals.
The Gunners, finishing third in the league stages, will encounter a team they played during last season’s Champions League group phase — Mikel Arteta’s squad achieved a 4-0 victory at home and drew 1-1 in the Netherlands.
Liverpool is set to face Paris Saint-Germain in Round 16 of this year’s Champions League. Arne Slot’s Liverpool secured the top spot in the 36-team league phase, automatically qualifying for this round, while PSG finished 15th and had to advance through a two-legged play-off where they dominated fellow French team Brest with a 10-0 aggregate score.
The first leg is scheduled to take place at Parc des Princes in Paris on either March 4 or 5, with the return match at Anfield a week later.
The last encounter between these clubs in the Champions League was during the group stage of the 2018/19 season when PSG claimed a 2-1 victory at home after Liverpool won 3-2 in England.
Their only previous knockout matchup occurred in the semi-finals of the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, where PSG triumphed 3-2 on aggregate before falling to Barcelona in the final.
Given that the draw includes up to and including the semi-finals, both PSG and Liverpool understand that the matchup winner will go up against either Club Brugge or Aston Villa in the quarter-finals.
This scenario allows for an all-English quarter-final between clubs that took turns as European Cup champions in the early 1980s.
Villa is set to meet Club Brugge as they look for retribution following their 1-0 loss to the same team in Belgium during the league phase in November.
Another notable matchup will feature Bayern Munich, the current leaders of the Bundesliga, going up against the reigning German champions, Bayer Leverkusen.
Under the management of former Bayern midfielder Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen remains undefeated in their last six encounters with Bayern, including a 1-0 victory in the German Cup earlier this season. This will be the teams’ first meeting in a European competition.
Feyenoord, who won the European Cup in 1970, is set to face Italian champions Inter Milan due to the elimination of AC Milan in the play-offs. The victor of this match will take on either Bayern or Leverkusen in the quarter-finals.
This marks the first instance since 2005/06 that two Dutch clubs have made it to the last 16.
Leading La Liga, Barcelona will go up against Benfica, a team they narrowly beat 5-4 in Lisbon last month while finishing second in the league stage.
Last year’s runners-up, Borussia Dortmund, will compete against the French team Lille.
The semi-final draw sets the stage for possible matchups between Liverpool and Arsenal or a clash between Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid and his former club, PSG.
Barcelona falls on the same side of the draw as Bayern and Leverkusen.
This season’s final is scheduled for May 31 in Munich.
