FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund have achieved solvable tasks for the round of 16 of the Champions League, RB Leipzig will face record winners Real Madrid. The Munich team will start the knockout phase in February and March against Lazio Rome, who are currently in poor form. BVB competes against PSV Eindhoven, which leads the Dutch league under former Dortmund coach Peter Bosz. This was the result of the draw at the headquarters of the European Football Union in Nyon on Monday.
The first legs of the first knockout round will be played between February 13th and 21st. Leipzig will then have home advantage, Bayern and BVB will initially play away. The return matches are scheduled between March 5th and 13th. The goal of all remaining teams is the final, which will take place on June 1st at Wembley Stadium in London.
New format from 2024/25
The Munich team had once again made it into the round of 16 with an almost flawless preliminary round. Five wins and one draw meant a confident group victory. Bayern are the clear favorites against Lazio, currently eleventh in the Serie A table. Dortmund also won their difficult preliminary group and should have a good chance of progressing against Eindhoven. Leipzig entered the knockout phase in second place behind Manchester City and will start as underdogs against the Real star ensemble. 1. FC Union Berlin, the fourth Bundesliga representative, was eliminated from the European Cup as bottom of the group on its debut in the premier class.
In the other round of 16, defending champions Manchester City will face the surprise team FC Copenhagen, while FC Barcelona will play against the Italian champions SSC Napoli. Paris Saint-Germain caught a supposedly easy opponent in Real Sociedad San Sebastian. Arsenal FC has to play against FC Porto, Inter Milan duels with Atlético Madrid.
A comment from Christopher Meltzer Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 2 Daniel Theweleit Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2 Sebastian Stier, Leipzig Published/Updated: Recommendations: 9
It is the last season in this format for the Champions League. From the coming season onwards, the European premium competition will become a kind of league in the preliminary round with 36 clubs, all of which are in a common table. There are then two more group games for each participant. In addition, there will be an additional knockout round for part of the field of participants: the playoffs for the round of 16.
All games in the Champions League round of 16 at a glance
FC Porto – FC Arsenal
SSC Napoli – FC Barcelona
Paris Saint-Germain – Real Sociedad San Sebastian
Inter Madrid – Atletico Madrid
PSV Eindhoven – Borussia Dortmund
Lazio Roma – Bayern Munich
FC Copenhagen – Manchester City
RB Leipzig – Real Madrid
