Liverpool to face PSG in Champions League

AFP | Paris

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Liverpool will take on Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of this season’s Champions League while yesterday’s draw also threw up a showdown between reigning champions Real Madrid and their city rivals Atletico.

Arne Slot’s Liverpool finished first in the 36-team league phase of the competition to qualify directly for this stage, while PSG finished 15th and had to come through a two-legged play-off tie in which they crushed fellow French side Brest 10-0 on aggregate.

The first leg will take place at the Parc des Princes in Paris on March 4 or 5, with the return at Anfield a week later.

The clubs last met in the Champions League in the group stage in 2018/19, when PSG won 2-1 at home after Liverpool triumphed 3-2 in England.

The only previous knockout tie between the sides came in the semi-finals of the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, when PSG won 3-2 on aggregate before losing the final to Barcelona.

Liverpool are currently eight points clear of Arsenal at the top of the English Premier League having played a game more than their closest rivals, while Luis Enrique’s PSG are unbeaten in Ligue 1 this season and sit 10 points clear at the summit.

With the draw being made up to and including the semi-finals, PSG and Liverpool know the winner of their tie will face either Club Brugge or Aston Villa in the last eight.

That raises the possibility of an all-English quarter-final between the teams who succeeded each other as European Cup winners in the early 1980s.

Villa will face Club Brugge seeking revenge for their 1-0 defeat against the same opponents in Belgium in the league phase in November.

Real, fresh from eliminating Manchester City in the playoffs, will be at home in the first leg against Atletico.

The rivals from the Spanish capital met in the competition in four straight seasons in the last decade, with Real coming out on top every time.