So, there we have it. The Champions League round of 16 is in the books and we have our eight quarter-finalists.
The remaining competitors will learn their respective paths to Wembley during Friday’s draw, and we’re bound to enjoy some blockbuster ties no matter how the draw plays out given the lack of upsets in the first knockout round.
There’s always a dream draw the be had, however. Here’s what 90min thinks that looks like for the upcoming quarter-finals.
There’s nothing novel about Der Klassiker. Germany’s two behemoths meet at least twice a year, but very rarely have they locked horns in the continental sphere.
Bayern and Dortmund haven’t faced off in a two-legged Champions League affair since 1998, with their last European clash arriving in the 2013 final.
Imagine how the Allianz and Yellow Wall would respond to a pair of Klassikers of this magnitude with a place in the semi-finals at stake.
We’ve seen Milan and Madrid derbies in this competition as of late, now’s the time for a Klassiker.
Man City were inexperienced upstarts during their previous knockout stage meetings with a seasoned Barcelona.
The pair met in the round of 16 back-to-back between 2013 and 2015, with Barca winning all four games. While City had established themselves as a force in the Premier League, they remained a gulf away from Europe’s elite.
The tables have very much turned since those matchups, however. With Pep Guardiola at the helm, City have been regarded as Europe’s best season after season for the best part of six years, but they only have one Champions League crown to their name. Barca, meanwhile, have only once come close to continental glory since they last won the competition in 2015.
Another knockout duel between these two would see Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo line up against their former club.
We saw these two go at it just two seasons ago, but would you really turn your nose up at a repeat of their 2021/22 round of 16 duel?
PSG controlled the large majority of the previous two-legged affair, but a Karim Benzema second-half blitz during the return leg in Madrid ensured the Spaniards progressed. Benzema’s heroics from out of the blue set the tone for what was an utterly remarkable journey to Champions League success.
Luis Enrique’s greater emphasis on the collective in the French capital will aim to dissipuate PSG’s knack for crumbling on the grand continental occasions, but the Spanish coach is still reliant on the ruthless instincts of Kylian Mbappe.
A duel against his inevitable future employers would function as the obvious sub-plot here.
Any of the potential ties are bound to be dripping in tactical intrigue, but perhaps none more so than this possible draw.
Arsenal struggled against a side of similar ilk in the round of 16, and Atletico, despite their domestic issues in 2024, proved against Inter that you can never write them off in this competition.
These two have never faced off in the Champions League, and Diego Simeone vs Mikel Arteta on the touchline would be absolutely box office.
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