Barcelona and Arsenal to meet in last 16

“Chelsea were playing wonderfully well last season, PSG have already won the French league – they must be 17 points clear now and it’s not even Christmas”, Wilkins was quoted saying in the Daily Mirror.

Manchester City have been gifted a far easier tie however, with the Sky Blues set to do battle with Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev.

The Gunners will be hoping to end a five-year losing streak at the round-of-16 stage.

Arsenal’s draw against the holders is their third tie with Barcelona in seven seasons, having lost to the Catalans 4-3 on aggregate at the same stage in 2011 and 6-3 in the quarter-finals a year earlier.

“Everybody wanted to avoid Barcelona and Bayern, so we are not so lucky, but Bayern will not be glad they drew Juve”, Pavel Nedved, the former Juventus midfielder, said.

“There is a great danger when you go to a draw – Dynamo Kiev they have been in a very tough group phase with Porto and Chelsea”.

“We’re sitting top of the Premier League, come February-March we’ll have some players back and it would be great to take them on with our full-strength side”.

The UEFA Champions League draw produced some familiar pairings yesterday with defending champion Barcelona facing Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain again taking on Chelsea.

In one of the most open match-ups of the draw, Belgian side KAA Gent take on German outfit VfL Wolfsburg in what will be the pair’s first meeting in their history.

“[Lionel] Messi, Neymar, [Luis] Suárez, you could go on, but we have our own world class players and I am sure they will be fantastic games in London and in Barcelona”.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi saw the French outfit extend their unbeaten start to the domestic season with a crushing 5-1 victory over Lyon on Sunday, but knows a stern test lays ahead – starting with Chelsea – on the club’s path to their ultimate goal of European glory.

“And Arsenal are at home in the first leg because they finished second in their group”.

Struggling Chelsea will be hungry and risky in the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain defender Thiago Silva said.

The English club was drawn to face Augsburg, with the first leg on February 18 and the second leg a week later.

Return legs are on 8-9 and 15-16 March.