The draw is on Monday at 12:00 UK time. We can draw anyone in Pot 2 apart from Swansea and Anzhi. Who do you want from this - a decent team (in Bold) to make it an exciting round or an easier team to get into the last 16. The draw for last 16 also takes place on Monday. Last 32 matches to be played on 20th/27th February. Round 16 (if involved) will be 13/20th March. And for those wondering why Juve are not seeded, it is done based on CL results. They only got 6 points from their Group, which makes them 6th of 8. Pot 1 Seeded: SSC Napoli SL Benfica FC Shakhtar Dontesk FC Basel 1893, Spurs, Valencia, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Red Bull Salzburg, Rubin Kazan, Fiorentina, Eintracht Frankfurt, KRC Genk, Sevilla Lyon Trabzonspor AZ Alkmaar Pot 2 Unseeded AFC Ajax, FC Porto, Juventus, FC Viktoria Plzeň Swansea FC Chornomorets Odesa, Esbjerg fB, Maribor, FC Dnipro, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Dynamo Kiev, Slovan Liberec, Real Betis Lazio Anzhi Makhachkala Salonika
If we drew Maccabi Tel Aviv, David Baddiel might suffer a nervous breakdown. So them. Don't want us drawing Lazio, for obvious reasons - even if we do owe them a thrashing that incompetent referees diddled us out of last season.
An excuse for a trip to Amsterdam would be nice. Failing that Real Betis, a bit of winter sunshine and Tapas. Any others stay at home and watch it on the television. Who the **** would want to go to Odessa or Kiev at this time of the year or am I being narrow minded?
Juve are one of the foreign teams I follow, which is mainly why I want us to avoid them as I know how class they are, Pirlo, Pogba, Vidal, Tevez, Llorente, Marchisco and Buffon, not to mention Cheillini and Barzagli in defence. They have struggled at times in the CL as their team appears better suited to domestic league and the Italian style of play but remember last year Inter Milan looked hopeless at WHL and then a different team at home. I wouldn't fancy needing to go to Turin, to get a result! Anyhow, hopefully we will avoid them and then if all the big teams make it through, the next round has the potential for some great games.
Remember that the final will be at Juve's stadium, so they will have a certain amount of incentive to win the tournament this year.
This should be renamed The Eastern European European Cup. Plenty of familiar names - and a few unknowns too - but no stand out teams. Juventus are overrated because of their history. They struggled in an average group (apart from Real Madrid). Porto, Kiev, Lazio and yes, Juventus best avoided.
Juventus certainly aren't over rated, just their current system doesn't always work well in the CL but just on performance alone they should have qualified. There are average teams through to the CL knockouts, not naming names
Don't be too harsh on Arsenal. They may have scraped through by the skin of their teeth and with a lot of good fortune, but it's a level playing field now. I'm sure nobody would want to draw them (although Real, Barca and Munich might )
SD, have you made some of these teams up? Who the **** are ludogorets razgard and chronomorets Odesa?
Not Juve or Lazio, or Tel Aviv just for the distance...never got my head round playing a European team from a country sandwiched between Jordan and Egypt! ??
Esbjerg - Quite close geographically, Scandinavian teams normally dont spring to many surprises, and they have not been doing so well in their league this year. Not that that led to a massive rout with Tromso!
Europa League last-32 draw: Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) v Tottenham Real Betis v Rubin Kazan Swansea City v Napoli Juventus v Trabzonspor Maribor v Sevilla Viktoria Plzen v Shakhtar Donetsk Chornomorets Odesa v Lyon Lazio v Ludogorets Esbjerg v Fiorentina Ajax v Salzburg Maccabi Tel-Aviv v Basel Porto v Eintracht Frankfurt Anji Makhachkala v Genk Dynamo Kiev v Valencia PAOK v Benfica Slovan Liberec v AZ Alkmaar Champions League last-16 draw: Manchester City v Barcelona Olympiakos v Manchester United AC Milan v Atletico Madrid Bayer Leverkusen v Paris Saint-Germain Galatasaray v Chelsea Schalke v Real Madrid Zenit St Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund Arsenal v Bayern Munich
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk v Tottenham Da fuq? Is that even a real team? How on Earth do you pronounce that?
The same way it's spelled, believe it or not. It's not like they're English or anything (take that, Teignmouth!) I'm sure Juande Ramos will get a good reception back at The Lane...
Not a bad draw, didn't realise Ramos was over there, and since 2010 as well so not bad. If we in than Benfica or PAOK, again, not too bad.
Surely fate would have drawn us against Porto today... Actually foreigners might well have more difficulty pronouncing our place names, even if they have a good grasp of English: Slough, Beaconsfield, Edinburgh, Alnwick, Fowey, Chiswick etc. I'm sure there are loads. I've noticed a lot of traffic reporters who can't even pronounce them! Edit: Holborn, Shrewsbury.
