Eventual winners Real Madrid comfortably knocked out Schalke at the same stage last season, winning 9-2 on aggregate. “Let's say that we are rather optimistic,” Madrid director Emilio Butragueno told Spanish TV broadcaster Canal Plus. “We have the experience from last season, a very good experience when we essentially won the tie in the first leg.”
Real beat Schalke 6-1 in the first leg and 3-1 in the second leg last season en route to their 10th European Cup success.
Barcelona, meanwhile, were able to negotiate their way past City with a 4-1 aggregate score and sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta was excited at the prospect of his side facing the English champions. “It's a great tie against a great rival, a team we know extremely well. There is still a long way to go until February and let's see what shape each team is in when the tie comes around, but for sure it's going to be a great tie with two great matches.”
Chelsea overcame PSG on away goals in the quarter-finals after winning their second leg 2-0 at The Stamford Bridge.
Last week Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said he would welcome being drawn against PSG ‘because it will be easy for our fans to travel to Paris’; and he got his wish when former World Cup winner Karl-Heinz Riedle drew the pair together.
Riedle — who drew the sides in his role as ambassador for Berlin, the venue for this season's final on June 6 — had scored twice when his Borussia Dortmund team beat Juventus 3-1 in the 1997 final and the 49-year-old also drew those two clubs together.
Meanwhile, last season's runners-up Atletico Madrid face Bayer Leverkusen in another Spain-Germany clash.
After a string of tough draws at this stage that eventually led to knockouts in previous seasons, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had joked last week that he will go to church in order to pray for a kinder draw. It seems his prayers have been answered as his side have been drawn against arguably the weakest seeded side; his former club AS Monaco, who he faces in a competitive match for the first time.
In the other matches, five-time winners Bayern Munich take on Shakhtar Donetsk and Swiss club FC Basel play Porto.
The first legs will be played on February 17-18, and February 24-25, with the second legs being played on March 10-11 and March 17-18 next year.
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