It will be Real Madrid vs. Manchester City yet again in the Champions League — but never as early as this, and for the first time with a Kylian Mbappé vs. Erling Haaland matchup.
Two heavyweights who struggled in the new eight-game league phase were the standout pairing Friday in the draw for the new knockout playoffs round. City had to be drawn against Bayern Munich or defending champion Madrid.
Madrid and City met in three semifinals and one quarterfinal in the past nine years and each time the winner went on to lift the trophy.
This time it is a two-leg playoff just for the right to enter the round of 16 because each lost three of eight games in the 36-team league and failed to advance direct among the top eight placed teams.
“The draw is the draw and we have to accept it,” said Real Madrid director Emilio Butragueno, who smiled and dismissed the idea the English champion is less of a threat in what has been the toughest of coach Pep Guardiola’s nine years in charge.
“We have to think they are going to perform at the very high level against Real Madrid,” the former Spain scoring great said. “No doubt.”
City, the 2023 champion in Haaland’s debut season, will host the first leg in Manchester on Feb. 11 or 12 and the return game is on Feb. 18 or 19. Madrid won a record-extending 15th European title last season and then added Mbappé to an already stellar team.
The winner will then face either Atlético Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, the Nos. 5 and 6 teams in the 36-team standings that ended Wednesday. Other teams through to the round of 16 in March are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Lille and Aston Villa.
Teams that finished from Nos. 9 to 24 in the standings dropped into the two-leg knockout playoffs.
Also Friday, it was Celtic vs. Bayern Munich, Brest vs. Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco vs. Benfica, Juventus vs. PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord vs. AC Milan, Club Brugge vs. Atalanta; and Sporting Lisbon vs. Borussia Dortmund.
Madrid placed 11th and Man City barely qualified in 22nd, after rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1 in a must-win game.
By finishing in 22nd Man City knew it would have to face No. 11 Madrid or No. 12 Bayern in the playoffs. Bayern was drawn instead to face 21st-place Celtic.
“It’s a crazy situation,” said Bayern sporting director Christophe Freund of having four European champions with a combined 23 titles — including seven of the last nine — in the same section of the draw before even the round of 16.
Bayern won its sixth European title in 2020, the pandemic shutdown season, when Madrid and City also met in February for a round of 16, first-leg game but the return was played more than five months later in August. City won both legs 2-1 then was eliminated by Lyon.
The tennis-style seedings and knockout bracket in the fresh competition format also now allows teams from the same country to face each other before the quarterfinals. That was not possible for the past two decades when the round of 16 opened the knockout phase.
That left PSG to be drawn Friday to face French rival Brest, which it also plays in a Ligue 1 game Saturday. That sent Monaco — which could have faced its French title rival PSG — to face Benfica.
Monaco chief executive Thiago Scuro, whose team faces PSG in the league next week, after a previous league game in December and the French Super Cup in January, suggested another local rivalry would have been “too many games against the same opponents.”
“For the fans it’s more interesting the way the draw is (today),” Scuro said, though Monaco already played Benfica on Nov. 27, losing 3-2 at home.
National derby games between Italian and Dutch sides were avoided because AC Milan was paired with Feyenoord, before Juventus was drawn to face PSV. Feyenoord will return to San Siro where it won the 1970 European Cup final against Celtic.
The new format now allows teams to meet in the first knockout round after already facing each other in the opening stage. Another repeat game is Juventus-PSV, after the Italian side won 3-1 in the opening set of matches in September.
The Feb. 21 draw for the round of 16 will set the knockout bracket through to the May 31 final at Bayern Munich’s stadium.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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