The fierce rivalry between English football champions, Chelsea and their Spanish counterparts, Barcelona will be rekindled when they clash in one of the round of 16 matches in Europe’s elite football showpiece, the UEFA Champions League (UCL).

In Monday’s draws hosted in Nyon, Switzerland, Chelsea were drawn to face Barcelona in what could be described as one of the tastiest, being the sixth time the two club sides   have been drawn against each other in the Champions League knockout stages.

In the other match-ups for the UCL Round of 16, Manchester United face Sevilla of Spain are who currently placed fifth in the La Liga. The Red Devils will fully expect to see off the Spaniards who were last weekend trumped 5 -0 by defending champions, Real Madrid.

The defending champions, Real Madrid will have an uphill task getting past France’s Paris Saint Germain (PSG) who, with their array of world class players have been touted to be the favourites to succeed Madrid. It promises to be an overwhelming tie going by the current form of both sides.

The other cracker involving an English club side is Tottenham Hotspurs against Juventus. The Mauricio Pochettino’s tutored Spurs played the Italian Champions in pre-season and beat them 2 – 0 at the Wembley Stadium. Pochettino had over the weekend said he would love to face one of Europe’s big teams as it provides a source of motivation for his young squad.

As for Manchester City, the early pacesetters in the English Premier League (EPL), the draws could not have been more favourable  as they have been drawn to face Swiss side, Basel. Basel were the weakest side available going into the draws and if current form and pedigree is anything to go by, then Man City should be able to brush Basel aside with minimal fuss.

Liverpool on the other hand, would not have all things their way when they slug it out with Portuguese side, FC Porto. Top of their league and unbeaten domestically in 11games, the Portuguese side led by the attacking prowess of Cameroonian forward, Vincent Abubakar could prove a handful for the Reds.

Although Porto managed to finish second in their UCL Group won by Besiktas, Liverpool’s defensive frailties could be a major course for concern going unto the crunch encounter.

Besiktas of Turkey who swept aside heavyweights like Monaco of France and Germany’s RB Leipzig en route to winning their group may have come to the end of their UCL campaign as they have been pitched against five- time European Champions and German heavyweights, Bayern Munich.

Although on paper, the Germans seem to be home and dry, the Turkish side who were unbeaten in the group stages should not be written off yet especially given their recent invisibility on home ground.

The final match of the round will see Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk filing out against AS Roma of Italy on February 13, 2018. When both sides met in the UCL on September 12, 2016, the Italians were 4- 0 winners.

Recently however,  the Ukrainians who boast of several players of Brazilian origin have been lethal in front of goal, a fact attested to by the 2 – 1 defeat they handed down to Manchester City in the last match of their Group F encounter.