City, Gunners face supermen

CHAMPS LEAGUE GRAPHICNYON. — On the day a Barcelona newspaper said the Catalans wanted to avoid Manchester City, Lionel Messi and his crew will have to face the English side in the Champions League while Arsenal have to overcome holders Bayern Munich. In a quirk of fate, Didier Drogba returns to face Chelsea with Turkish outfit Galatasaray.

Rivals Manchester United have the most favourable draw of the English sides, against Greek side Olympiacos.

Real Madrid, Paris St Germain and Borussia Dortmund will be happy with their ties, against Schalke, Bayer Leverkusen and Zenit St Petersburg respectively.

AC Milan have a tough game against Atletico Madrid, who are fighting for the title in Spain alongside usual suspects Madrid and Barcelona.

The draw took place in Nyon, conducted by Uefa secretary Gianni Infantino, Uefa director of competitions Giorgio Marchetti and final ambassador Luis Figo. Group winners will be away in their first legs, which take place on the 18/19th, 25/26th of February, with the return matches on the 11/12th, 18/19th of March.

Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini said: “I think it is a beautiful game. Two very good teams and we will see which team arrives at the best moment.

“It is not only Messi and Aguero, we will see which plays better but we worry about that in February.

“Winning against Bayern gave us a lot of confidence. The most very important thing was that we had qualified. To play against Bayern was a big test for what we can do in the future. There were many critics after we played here against Bayern Munich at home here (lost 3-1), maybe same critics were then saying how we should have scored four against Bayern. That shows how far we have come.” The draw means there will also be a return to Barcelona for Manchester City directors Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano.

Barça director of football Andoni Zubizarreta said: ‘Going up against Yaya Toure again and Txiki Begiristain means the game has absolutely everything. For a long time if you thought about a big European game in Manchester you would always think United but not anymore.’

City was the draw Barcelona dreaded, as reflected in one more paper in the city printed beforehand which simply said: “City, No”. But Zubizarreta recognised that the team who have won the Champions League three times in the last 10 years were also the ones everyone else wanted to avoid. “City will also have not wanted to draw us,” he said.

Barcelona coach Tata Martino said: “I imagine that they didn’t want to face us. What we have to do now is make sure we are in the right shape for the game in February.

“We know they are a good side. They have top players and they seem to score goals easily.

“Pellegrini is one of the best coaches in Europe and it will be an honour to face one of his teams.” Begiristain said: “We have drawn against a fantastic team that has a champion’s mentality. But we are playing very well too.

“We have to get a better equilibrium between defence and attack and we will be just right. We will go into the game with plenty of confidence because (Manuel) Pellegrini is experienced in terms of playing Barcelona.” David Silva told Marca beforehand: “There is a lot of talk about them (Barcelona) at the moment but they are first in everything. People say they are not playing well but they are top in Spain and they topped their group.

“I would like us to be in their situation.” Silva’s thoughts were echoed by Jesus Navas speaking ahead of Monday’s draw which paired the two teams. He said: ‘Barcelona have players of enormous quality and you can never doubt them.’ Lionel Messi has been out of action for the last two weeks but will be back for the last-16 games. In his absence Brazilian striker Neymar has scored five goals in his last two matches. — Mailonline.

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