Real Madrid face Manchester City again in Champions League knockouts with juicy last-16 clash
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The completed draw for the last 16 of the 2025-26 Champions League which was conducted on Feb 27.
PHOTO: REUTERS
NYON – Real Madrid and Manchester City will face off in a Champions League knockout tie for the fifth season running after being drawn on Feb 27 to play each other in the last 16, while reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain will take on Chelsea.
The Spanish giants, record 15-time European champions, will host City in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu in March before travelling to England for the second leg a week later.
The clubs have already played each other this season, with Pep Guardiola’s City winning 2-1 in Madrid in December during the league phase
That allowed City, Champions League winners in 2023, to advance straight to the last 16 while Madrid had to come through the knockout phase play-offs, where they beat Benfica 3-1 on aggregate
“For our club, as much as you play against the best teams in the whole history of this competition, you learn and improve and you are better in the future,” said Guardiola, without giving much away on his thoughts.
City’s director of football Hugo Viana added: “A big game for both. It’s like a final. We’re happy to go there (to the Bernabeu) again and have this kind of opponent and these kind of games.
“But it’s too soon to speak about the final. We should think about it game by game. Now we have a strong opponent to face and we cannot think about the final.”
This is the eighth season in which the teams have played each other since 2012. Real beat City in the knockout phase play-offs last season and in the quarter-finals on the way to winning the trophy in 2024. The La Liga giants also emerged victorious in the semi-finals in 2022, with City winning their contest at the same stage the following year.
PSG will be at home to Chelsea in the first leg after qualifying for this stage with a 5-4 aggregate win over Ligue 1 rivals Monaco in the play-offs. Chelsea progressed straight to the last 16 after finishing sixth in the league phase.
The sides faced each other in the knockout stages in three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016, with Chelsea winning the first of those matchups in the quarter-finals and PSG triumphing in the last 16 in the following two.
Their last encounter came in July’s Club World Cup final in the US, when Chelsea won 3-0 against the reigning European champions
Chelsea’s former director of football David Barnard said: “PSG, we’ve played them quite a few times. They are the reigning champions but people will probably refer to what happened in the summer at the Club World Cup. It’ll be tough but it holds no fear for us.”
Meanwhile, Newcastle United will take on Barcelona with the first leg at St James’ Park – the Spanish side won 2-1 there during the league phase in September.
There is a record total of six English clubs in the last 16. Liverpool will have a rematch against Galatasaray, who beat the Reds 1-0 in September in their league-phase clash.
Arsenal will come up against Bayer Leverkusen while Tottenham Hotspur were drawn to play Atletico Madrid.
German champions Bayern Munich will play Atalanta, the sole Italian club in the last 16, while Norwegian upstarts Bodo/Glimt’s reward for knocking out Inter Milan is a tie against Sporting Lisbon.
The first legs will take place on March 10 and 11, with the second legs coming a week later.
This season’s Champions League final will take place at the Puskas Arena in Budapest on May 30. AFP
