Champions League - Round of 16 draw
Published 12/21/2007 7:12:06 AM by Shane Barrow from soccermogul
The draw for the round of 16 in the 2007-2008 Champions League has been made and some juicy matchups await. Arsenal and Liverpool were definitely punished for not winning their groups as they now have to face AC Milan and Inter Milan right off the bat.
Given Liverpool's awful start to the group phase they should be happy to still be playing. They put together a stunning and dominant run over the last half of the group stage to earn a spot in the knockouts. How were they rewarded for the dominant play? Nothing more than a home and home with Italian powers Inter Milan. However, the Liverpool/Inter matchup is not even the most attractive of the next round. The biggest matchup of the next clearly falls to the Arsenal/AC Milan pairing.
The other two English sides clearly got better draws as Chelsea drew Olympiacos and Manchester United will face French side Lyon. Celtic were unlucky to draw Barcelona, but don't count out Celtic as giant killers.
First-leg play will begin Tuesday and Wednesday February 19-20. Other knockout round matches are:
Schalke - Porto
Fenerbache - Sevilla
Roma - Real Madrid
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