City, Arsenal handed horror last-16 draws

Teams to take on Barca, Bayern respectively in Champions League clashes.

PARIS:

Spanish giants Barcelona were handed the toughest possible draw Monday when they were paired with Manchester City in the all-important tie of the last-16 of the Champions League.

Champions Bayern Munich were also given a hard draw as they plucked Arsenal for the second year in a row at this stage.

For the English pair, who both finished second in their groups, it was yet again a harsh lesson in the importance of winning the group.

Manchester United and Chelsea, both group winners, were given far more favourable draws against Olympiakos and Galatasaray respectively.

In fairness to Arsenal and City, they did have the toughest possible groups facing one each of last season’s finalists.

City came within a single goal of pipping Bayern to top spot in their group when a 3-2 win in Munich was one goal short of what they needed to overhaul the Bavarians.

Manchester City coach Manuel Pellegrini told a press conference that Barca would be the more upset of the pair over the draw.

“I think Barcelona will be very concerned that they have drawn us,” said Pellegrini. “They are not the team of two years ago.”

Neither side delighted with draw, assumes Martino

But Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino insisted neither side would be delighted with the draw.

“City will not have wanted to play against Barcelona either,” he said. “They are scoring goals with ease so we are not going to discover them now. We want to play well in the tie and obviously win it.”

Arsenal were within a couple of minutes of winning their group despite losing 2-0 at Napoli on the final match-day but Borussia Dortmund’s late winner in Marseille allowed them to snatch top spot there.

Last season Arsenal drew Bayern in the last-16 and seemed to be as good as out when they lost the first leg 3-1 at the Emirates.

But they came within a whisker of making the quarter-finals when taking the second leg 2-0 at the Allianz Arena, going out only on away goals.

Arsenal have rarely had much luck in the knockout stage draws in recent years having been paired with AC Milan in 2012 and Barcelona in 2011.

Meanwhile, Olympiakos coach Michel did not sound confident of causing an upset against United.

“We like the idea of going to play at Old Trafford; it is a nice destination for our fans,” he said.

“Manchester United is a major club. We are talking about a huge football organisation. They will be two tough matches.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2013.

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