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The inimitable Eric Abidal has come on stage as the official 2018 UEL Final Ambassador, and he awkwardly answers Marchetti's questions on his career, Lyon, et al
Arsenal fans, here are the teams your lads can face - AEK Athens, Astana, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Ludogorets, Lyon, Marseille, Napoli, Nice, Östersund, Partizan Belgrade, Real Sociedad, Spartak Moscow
Well, that's that for the Champions League draw, utterly brilliant fixtures coming up in the world's best footballing tournament... stay tuned, we'll bring you live updates of the Europa League draw as well
UEFA's head of club competitions, I love how official that title sounds, comes out and explains the rules of the draw. RULES THAT EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING KNOWS
The draw is on!!! UEFA's President isn't here, but Pedro Pinto is town, and he's speaking rapidly, and well as he congratulates Cristiano Ronaldo for being Cristiano Ronaldo (oh, and for creating another record by scoring in every one of Madrid's group stage games)
What else do you expect from a man who sings along to the Champions League anthem like he's the President of UEFA?
A lot of people out there are dreaming, and hoping, that they face Beskitas - currently fourth in the Turkish Super Lig (they even drew Kayserispor 1-1 this weekend) and struggling domestically. Plus they are not a big team, their striker is a Turk and their playmakers are a gypsy who could have been Ronaldo and a Dutchman who even Anfield found hard to like, let alone love...
But anyone who has seen the Turks play in the Champions League will be wary... Quaresma and Ryan Babel are playing with rare freedom, Anderson Talisca is a playmaker who creates magic... and they have Pepe.
A lot of pundits, with the backing of some complex statistical algorithms, are predicting that Chelsea will draw Barcelona; the mouth waters at the prospect of one of the Champions Leagues defining fixtures (of the modern era, anyway) being played out so early... what do you guys think?
Ping me with who your team would rather face and why @animenon19!
Hello and welcome to SK's live blog for the UEFA Champions League knockout stage draw, this is Anirudh Menon and I look forward to taking you through what should be an intense fifteen minutes or so of fondling balls around in two pots.
No, I do. I really do.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW TIMINGS, VENUE, TELECAST, AND LIVE STREAMING DETAILS
Timings: 11 AM GMT, 4.30 PM IST, Monday 11th December (that's 1630 hours for you, soldier) Venue: UEFA HQ Nyon, Switzerland Telecast: Ten 2/ Ten 2 HD Live Streaming: uefa.com
This will be immediately followed by the UEFA Europa League draw, and with plenty of prominent drop-downs into the competition from the Champions League, Arsenal funs should have a fun time following that!
The 8 who have qualified on top of their respective groups (A-H)
- Manchester United
- PSG
- Roma
- Barcelona
- Liverpool
- Manchester City
- Besiktas
- Tottenham Hotspur
Their choice of opponents, those who have qualified as second-place finishers
- FC Basel
- Bayern Munich
- Chelsea
- Juventus
- Sevilla
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Porto
- Real Madrid
With such a plethora of big names in the second pot, at least a couple of blockbuster round-of-16 games are guaranteed and if even one of them can come within a fifth of what transpired between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain last year, they ought to be worth every penny.
Imagine United or City drawing Real Madrid, Barcelona drawing Chelsea, PSG taking on Juventus, Liverpool hosting Bayern Munich.... be calm my beating heart... this ought to make for some nerve-wracking viewing (or reading, if you are doing it here - which you should be if you lot are in school, college, or office... turn that TV OFF)
Oh, and stay tuned right here for the Europa League draw, don't go anywhere, eh?
Thank you for reading!
Toodle-ooo!