Winter schedule gives PSG Champions League advantage over Chelsea – Thiago Silva

Paris: Paris Saint-Germain coach Laurent Blanc hopes a “complicated” schedule won’t hinder them from defeating Chelsea en route to the Champions League last-eight stage.

The Blues face a testing last-16 tie with Paris St-Germain, who knocked out Mourinho’s side at the same stage last season.

Last year’s finalists Juventus were also handed a tough tie against German champions Bayern Munich.

The Spanish giants, winners over Juventus in the final in Berlin last season, were paired with Arsenal for the third time in seven campaigns in Monday’s draw in Nyon.

The remaining ties featured two-time runners-up Atletico Madrid taking on 1988 champions PSV Eindhoven with twice former winners Benfica up against Zenit St Petersburg. “We must have maximum respect for Arsenal”.

PSG may be unbeaten in a record 14 Ligue 1 games, rocketing to a greater lead at the top of the domestic table than Chelsea have points in the Premier League, but form goes out of the window over two legs.

Arsenal’s chances of making into the quarter finals of the Champions League have dropped dramatically following the draw, with Luis Enrique’s side the outright favourites to win this year’s trophy and become the first club to successful defender the Champions League title.

Defending champions Barcelona have again been drawn to face Arsenal in round 16 of the Champions League. The match will be the second of two Kiev have been ordered to play behind closed doors because of the misconduct of their supporters, including racist chanting.

“We’ve got our own world class players and we’ll go in for this”.

“Both teams have a similar understanding of football, so I think we will have two great games and we hope to get the better results”, Soler told beIN Sport Spain.

City, who won their group for the first time, last faced Kiev in the Europa League in 2011.

First legs on Feb 16-17 and Feb 23-24.

Struggling Manchester United are due to play Danish champions FC Midtjylland in the same competition, while Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp faces a return to Germany when the Reds play Augsburg.