The draw for the round of 16 of the Champions League 2021/22 marked two duels between Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain for the beginning of next year.
Stars Lionel Messi, 34, and Cristiano Ronaldo, 36, are expected to meet again for the teams they started defending this season: PSG and United, respectively.
The last clash between them was in December 2020, when Juventus, where Ronaldo was at the time, and Messi’s Barcelona dueled in the group stage.
Last summer, the two aces dominated the headlines in the transfer window. The Argentine for changing teams for the first time in his career, and the Portuguese for returning 12 years later to a team where he stood out, became an idol and was voted best player in the world for the first time before joining Spanish football.
The two have faced each other 36 times, mostly in the classics between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Messi came away with victory on 16 occasions, and Cristiano Ronaldo, on 11 —​there were nine draws.
The Argentine, alongside Neymar and Mbappé, is looking to lead PSG to their first Champions League title. The Portuguese’s mission is to replace United at the top of European football, which hasn’t happened since 2008, when he was still there.
The first leg of the round of 16 will be held on the 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd of February — still without the exact dates defined. The ones back, on the 8th, 9, 15th and 16th of March.
A novelty in this edition of Champions is that goals scored away from home will no longer be used as a tiebreaker criterion.
Switching from the quarterfinals onwards has not yet been defined. The decision, in St. Petersburg (Russia), is scheduled for the 28th of May.
See the clashes of the octaves
Real Madrid x Benfica
Manchester City x Villarreal
B yesterday x Atlético de Madrid
Liverpool x Red Bull Salzburg
Ajax x Inter Milan
Juventus x Sporting
Lille x Chelsea
Manchester United x PSG
The teams that passed first in the group stage, on the left, decide at home
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