The end of the world can wait at least till March because the UEFA Champions League draw has paved way for some exciting matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo to come home for the First knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League
The match of the round will be none other than two of the biggest and richest clubs in the world playing each other. Real Madrid will lock horns with Manchester United. Christiano Ronaldo will come back to Old Trafford once again, but this time the fan favorite, the man who lifted the roof of the theater of dreams on more than one occasion will not be wearing a red shirt. He will be playing in the all white of Real Madrid.
No matter what the end result will be, both sets of fans are bound to sing the name of their favorite player. To make matters worse for Madrid, their El Clasico match is scheduled to be played on March 3rd, couple of days before the Champions League encounter.
Arsenal once again have been given a tough match, they will be facing last year’s runners up Bayern Munich. Will we see a English team wash out remains to be seen. Wenger must consider himself unlucky after being placed against Barcelona, Milan and now Bayern Munich.
The next interesting tie will be between Barcelona and Milan. The two teams met in the quarter finals last year. The match won’t be as exciting as it was then because Milan have dropped their standards way too much.
These are the matches in the First Knockout Stage:
- Galatasaray vs Schalke 04
- Celtic vs Juventus
- Arsenal vs Bayern Munich
- Shakthar Donetsk vs Borrusia Dortmund
- Milan vs Barcelona
- Real Madrid vs Manchester United
- Valencia vs Paris Saint Germain
- Porto vs Malaga
Meanwhile in the Europa League, Chelsea will be looking to save some pride by lifting the Europa League. No English team has lifted the cup over the past decade and the last team to do that was Liverpool in 2001-02.
Liverpool have been placed opposite Zenit St Petersburg, Martin Skrtel will be facing his former club.
Newcastle United have been given a simpler tie, they will play Ukranian side Metalist Kharkiv. Chelsea will play Sparta Prague.
The tough match will be for North Londoners tottenham Hotspur, they wil play French giants Lyon.
Defending Champions Atletico Madrid will play Rubin Kazan, Inter Milan will play FC Cluj. Another interesting tie will be between Bayer Leverkusen and Benifica and Borussia Monchengladbach and Lazio. Napoli will play Viktoria Plzen.
Tags: Christiano Ronaldo, First Knockout Stage, Manchester United, Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League
