Champions League Second Round Preview (1)

The draw for the second round matches (to be played on 20/21 Feb and 6/7 Mar 2007) takes place in Nyon, Switzerland, on 15 December (next Friday).

Here are the teams, regulations and possible dream matches.

Champions League Second Round teams

Group Winners

Chelsea (A)
Bayern Munich (B)
Liverpool (C)
Valencia (D)
Lyon (E)
Manchester United (F)
Arsenal (G)
AC Milan (H)

Runners Up

Barcelona (A)
Inter Milan (B)
PSV Eindhoven (C)
Roma (D)
Real Madrid (E)
Celtic (F)
Porto (G)
Lille (H)

Draw Regulations

The draw respects the following principles:

• Clubs from the same association must not be drawn against each other.
• The winners and runners-up of the same group must not be drawn against each other.
• Group winners must not be drawn against each other.
• Group runners-up must not be drawn against each other.
• All group runners-up will play their first-leg matches at home.

This means that even if United had ended up second, they would NOT have been able to face Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea. As things currently stand, all 4 Premier League teams were top of their group, so no such chances there.

Potential Clashes

Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal can line up against any of the 8 runners-up (except the teams from their own groups), but the rest have problems.

What I’ve done here is listed all 16 teams, with the teams they can NOT play in brackets.

Group Winners

Chelsea (Barcelona)
Bayern Munich (Inter Milan)
Liverpool (PSV Eindhoven)
Valencia (Roma, Barcelona, Real Madrid)
Lyon (Real Madrid, Lille)
Manchester United (Celtic)
Arsenal (Porto)
AC Milan (Lille, Inter Milan, Roma)

Runners Up

Barcelona (Chelsea, Valencia)
Inter Milan (Bayern Munich, AC Milan)
PSV Eindhoven (Liverpool)
Roma (Valencia, AC Milan)
Real Madrid (Lyon, Valencia)
Celtic (Manchester United)
Porto (Arsenal)
Lille (AC Milan, Lyon)

Valencia and Milan probably have only 5 teams each they can play against, so a Milan v Barcelona or Milan v Madrid clash has a pretty decent chance of happening.

Here are the fixtures I’d really love to see:

Chelsea vs Inter Milan
Bayern Munich vs PSV Eindhoven
Liverpool vs Barcelona
Valencia vs Celtic
Lyon vs Roma
Manchester United vs Lille (heh)
Arsenal vs Real Madrid
AC Milan vs Porto

…

Will have the draw posted here as soon as it is made.