Champions League draw: Arsenal land Barcelona as Chelsea face PSG again
City will be pleased to have avoided the unsafe PSG as they bid to reach the quarter-finals for the first time but their fans may be frustrated about taking on Dynamo Kyiv.
The Gunners, who memorably reached the knockout stages with victory at Olympiacos last week, were handed arguably the toughest task when they were paired with the holders in the draw for the next round.
Their dreams proved to be short-lived.
Arsenal secretary David Miles was quick to admit that the draw was not what Arsenal fans had hoped for.
Perhaps he too had considered the prospect of watching Per Mertesacker attempt to keep Europe’s deadliest trio at bay.
In-form Barcelona sits at the top of the Spanish league despite drawing its last two matches, and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has to work out how to achieve the seemingly impossible – keeping attackers Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar quiet.
PSG beat Chelsea on away goals at the same stage of last season’s Champions League and their only defeats in their last 39 games have come against Barcelona and Real Madrid.
They will feel the draw has gone against them again, with Wolfsburg, conquerors of Manchester United, their preferred opponent.
City sporting director Txiki Begiristain said: “They are a strong side and play their football on the pitch”. If we go into it thinking we’re favourites, things won’t turn out well.
Manchester City were drawn against Ukrainian opposition Dynamo Kyiv, which will host City in the reverse leg in an empty stadium as punishment for previous crowd disturbances and racist behavior among Dynamo supporters, according to Sky Sports.
“I hope we can take advantage of this situation, but in the Champions League you never know what is going to happen”.
“By finishing second in our group we had some big teams to avoid”.
The first legs will be played on February 16-17 and and 23-24 with the return matches scheduled to take place on March 8-9 and 15-16.
The Gunners did well to make it this far, having lost their opening two games of the group stages to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos respectively.
“You only know if it’s a good draw after the tie”.
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