The 2020/21 UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw was made today, Monday 14th of December 2020. The biggest ties of the draw are clashes between PSG and Barcelona and also between Chelsea and Athletico Madrid. The other fixtures in the draw are: Man City vs. Borussia Monchengladbach, Lazio vs. Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool, FC Porto vs. Juventus, Sevilla vs. Borussia Dortmund, and Atalanta vs. Real Madrid.
Here’s the full 2020/21 UCL round of 16 draws:
In this piece, TOP SOCCER BLOG looks at the winners and losers from the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League round of 16 draws.
WINNERS: PEP GUARDIOLA & MAN CITY
Pep Guardiola will surely be relieved when he discovered that their opponents in the next phase of the competition will be Borussia Monchengladbach. Manchester City could have easily landed the likes of Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, or Leipzig, who all came second in the group stages of the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League. Guardiola’s side will be optimistic of progressing to the quarterfinals.
LOSERS: BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH
Monchengladbach had the chance of finishing on top of their group ahead of Real Madrid but failed to do so as they lost their last group game to Zidane’s men and subsequently finished second. The consequence is facing Man City in the next round!
WINNERS: BAYERN MUNICH
Defending champions, Bayern, will be eager to hold on to their crown, and they will be happy to have landed Lazio in the next round and also avoided the big guns that finished second in their groups in the process.
LOSERS: LAZIO
Bayern are the most feared team at the moment, and no side relishes the prospect of facing them, but Lazio are unfortunate to have landed the Bavarians in the UCL round of 16 draws. More painful for Lazio is the fact that they finished just 3 points below Dortmund in their group.
WINNERS: REAL MADRID
Madrid almost crashed out of the champions league going into the group stage’s final game, but Zidane’s men ultimately avoided that embarrassment and even finished on top of their group. Their reward is a round of 16 tie against Atalanta.
LOSERS: CHELSEA
When the Blues finished top of their group ahead of Sevilla, they would have been hopeful of being handed a favorable draw in the next round but were instead paired against La Liga giants, Athletico Madrid!
Frank Lampard’s young team will be facing arguably the most aggressive in Europe.
WINNERS: JUVENTUS
Juventus edged Barcelona to finish top of their group on head-to-head, and that single goal that placed them in that spot has come in handy as it has landed them a virtually straight forward tie against Porto in the next round.
LOSERS: BARCELONA
Barcelona will now be ruing that single goal that placed them below Juventus on head-to-head in their group. The Catalans have now been handed an extremely tough tie against last season’s finalists, PSG.
Ronald Koeman now has a lot to do with the team to ensure progression to the quarterfinals.
WINNERS: SEVILLA
Sevilla finished second behind Chelsea in their group and would have expected the worst ahead of the draw, but the Spanish side will be pleased to have been paired against Borussia Dortmund. They will be hopeful of overcoming their German opposition.
LOSERS: PSG
PSG’s run to the final last season was a step in the right direction in their bid of finally conquering Europe. The Parisians will be have been very hopeful of bettering that this season when they finished top of their group. Still, their quest has been made tougher as they have to overcome Lionel Messi’s Barcelona in the next round.
Neymar and co. need to be on top of their game to stand a chance of reaching the quarterfinals.
