Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid – the usual suspects are there as the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal draw takes centrestage in Nyon Friday.
Joining Barca, Bayern and Real in the quarterfinal draw hat are PSG, a title contender along with Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Manchester City and Wolfsburg. Man City and Wolfsburg will be playing in the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time in their history, so it will be a momentous occasion for the two sides.
[Get the quarterfinal draw results HERE]
City, of course, have the money and talent to go all the way this season, and it will be quite an interesting quarterfinal if they are drawn against Bayern Munich, who are managed by Pep Guardiola, the Spaniard who will take over at the Etihad next season.
Sergio Aguero, the Manchester City striker, however, hopes to avoid both Bayern Munich and Barcelona, the two favourites for the title this season, in the quarterfinals.
"You always want to go far, and to do that you have to face the best," Aguero was quoted as saying by The Guardian. "Obviously Barca and Bayern are there, who are the two best by form, and obviously if we can avoid them all the better, but at some point we will have to face them.
"We are all here for this, to fight at the top and we are happy to get through. The thing is for the last two years we have had to play against Barcelona and they are a very tough opponent, they are always favourites to win the Champions League. It's difficult but we are happy to fulfil our goals."
Goals, of a different kind, will, hopefully, be the flavour of the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League, after a sometimes-exciting, sometimes-not-so-much round of 16.
As strong as Bayern are, the one team every one of the seven others will want to avoid is Barcelona. With Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar playing the way they are, Barca, the defending European champions, look near-unstoppable, something that their manager Luis Enrique is well aware of.
"The fact we have reached the quarterfinals for the ninth year in a row is a great statistic," Enrique told UEFA's official website after seeing off Arsenal 5-1 on aggregate. "I don't know if any other team have done that.
"I'll be happy whoever we get in the quarterfinals, the only team I wouldn't want to draw is Barca and we can't get them."
UEFA Champions League quarterfinalists: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Benfica, Wolfsburg.
Where to Watch Live
The UEFA Champions League quarterfinal draw is scheduled for a 12 pm CET (4.30 pm IST, 11 am GMT, 6 am ET) start. Ten Action will broadcast the entire draw live in India.
Viewers in the UK can watch the draw live on BT Sport and Sky Sports News. Audience in the US can watch the Champions League draw unfold live on Fox Sports, with the live streaming option on FoxSoccer2Go.
Bein Sports will show the Champions League draw live in Thailand, Indonesia, France, Canada, Middle East, North Africa, Spain and Australia.
Audience from around the world, including India, can also watch the video of the draw by online live streaming on UEFA.com (But please note some locations will be geo blocked).
