Barcelona to face Arsenal in first elimination stage

Barcelona aren’t invincible as seen in the weekend when they let a two goal lead slip at home.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid will face Serie A side Roma. Numerous best players in the word will be on show.

It took a real battle to even achieve that after zero points from their opening two matches against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos, and the reward for an impressive comeback in the group is to face arguably the most talented and most devastating attack ever assembled in football.

One of Gent or Wolfsburg will qualify for their first Champions League quarter-final. The Germans have drawn surprise package Gent, from Belgium.

The four clubs will be competing on February 17 and March 8.

Chelsea weren’t immune as they were drawn with the runaway leaders of France’s Ligue 1 Paris St Germain for the second year in a row.

Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, finalists in 2014, will take on PSV Eindhoven.

Manchester City came away with the top spot in group D and will be taking on Dynamo Kyiv in the knockout round.

The last-16 encounter, which will be played over two legs (Feb 23 at the Emirates Stadium and March 16 at the Nou Camp), will also reopen some old wounds at the London club. In the first one, the main focus is to qualify from the group – and it’s no easy feat, some big clubs don’t. They will be facing second seeded Arsenal out of group F. They did not start brightly in their league but they have recovered.

For Arsenal, the inevitable task is trying to avoid being knocked out of the competition by Barcelona for the third time in seven seasons.

Arsene Wenger’s men were well beaten by Barcelona – 6-3 and 5-2 on aggregate – in the knockout stages in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Manchester United face Danish champions Midtjylland in the last 32 of the Europa League after failing to qualify for the Champions League knockout phase.

While the Catalan giants remained polite about the Londoners, publicly at least, there is no doubt Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain were the sides they wanted to avoid when the last 16 ties were set on Monday.

Barcelona have won three Champions League titles in the interim, and have – in spite of some stiff competition – become the club of the era in these golden days of European football.

But there was a notable downside as they will not be allowed any support at the first leg in Ukraine on February 24.

Real Madrid and Roma have also seen a lot of each other in the competition, though not since 2008 when the Italians won 2-1 home and away in the last 16.