Familiar foes meet again in European ties

European champion Real Madrid will face Schalke 04, Barcelona will play Manchester City and Chelsea will play Paris St. Germain in three ties repeated from last season following the draw for the Champions league last 16 yesterday.

Real Madrid knocked Schalke out of the last 16 last season 9-2 on aggregate, Barcelona beat Manchester City 4-1 while Chelsea beat PSG on away goals in the quarterfinals.

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 Karl-Heinz Riedle drew the pair together.

Riedle, who performed the draw in his role as ambassador for Berlin, the venue for this season’s final on June 6 and who scored twice when his Borussia Dortmund team beat Juventus 3-1 in the 1997 final, also drew those two clubs together.

Last season’s beaten finalist Atletico Madrid faces Bayer Leverkusen in another Spain-Germany match-up.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will face his old club AS Monaco in a competitive match for the first time while five-time winner Bayern Munich takes on Shakhtar Donetsk. Swiss club FC Basel plays 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. The final is in Berlin on June 6.

Real beat Schalke 6-1 in the first leg and 3-1 in the second leg last season en route to its 10th European Cup success. Real director Emilio Butragueno said, “We have the experience from last season, a very, very good experience when we essentially won the tie in the first leg.”

Also, Celtic faces a tricky Europa League last-32 tie after being drawn against Italy’s Inter Milan while Liverpool takes on gritty Turkish side Besiktas.

Titleholder Sevilla will be up against Borussia Moenchengladbach. Tottenham Hotspurs will take on Italy’s Fiorentina while Everton was drawn against Swiss side Young Boys.

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