After a new League Phase and a brand new Champions League play-off (a sort of "round of 32"), the UEFA competitions now enter in more familiar territory: round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final in Munich on May 31. On Friday, February 21, the draw for the round of 16 will take place for Champions League, Europa League and Conference League (the second and third UEFA competitions play on Thursday evening).
The draws will take place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. Champions League's draw will begin at 12:00 CET (11:00 GMT in the UK), followed by Europa League at 13:00 CET and Conference League at 14:00 CET, and it will be stream on UEFA.com.
It will be identical for all three competitions, and will determine not only the rivals for each of the 16 qualified teams per competition (each team only has two possible rivals, so it will be like flipping a coin), but also the side of the bracket each team will get. For example, If Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are assigned, they could face Real Madrid in a semi-final, but if Barcelona gets Benfica, they could only face Real Madrid at a hypothetical final.
Therefore, tomorrow's draw will allow us to predict all possibilities for the rest of the competitions and the path for each team to victory.
What we know so far is that the seeded teams (those that finished first on the League Phase) will play the second leg of the round of 16 at home. Those include Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter, Atleti, Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.
After deciding the rivals for the round of 16, and also which side each team falls, two more draws will be made tomorrow, to determine the order of the quarter-finals and semi-finals (which team will play at home or away the second leg).
On Friday, at 12:00 CET, one hour earlier in the UK, we will be paying a lot of attention to the final draw for Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League before the final. You can watch it live on UEFA.com.
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