We know the sixteen teams who will advance to the knockout round, and now the fun begins. The teams are now divided into two pools: That of the group winners and then the second place finishers.Pool One
AS Roma, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, FC Porto and Juventus.
Pool Two
Chelsea, Inter Milan, Sporting Lisbon, Atletico Madrid, Villareal, Lyon, Arsenal and Real Madrid.
In a perfect world, you would pull a team out of Pool One, and another out of Pool Two and they would play each other. But this isn't a perfect world. There are certain rules to maintain the excitement of the Champions League. The first is that you can't play a team that was in your group. So Chelsea cannot play Roma, because they were both in Group A. The second is that you can't play a team from the same country. So Roma can't play Inter because they're both from Serie A. As you can see, this limits the second round matchups. In an emphasis on brevity, and preference to English speaking countries, I'll just do the possible matchups for the Premiership clubs.
Chelsea: Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, FC Porto, Juventus
Arsenal: Roma, Panathinaikos, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus
Liverpool: Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Villareal, Lyon, Real Madrid
Manchester United: Inter, Sporting Lisbon, Atletico Madrid, Lyon, Real Madrid
Barcelona is the hottest team in the competition, and teams would surely want to avoid them in the next round. Real Madrid will grow stronger in the coming months(one would assume, but assumptions and Real Madrid don't always mix) as players get healthy and Ramos gets to know them better. Inter are coached by Mourinho, the cup master, and will be a tough draw. Juventus are also a tough team, having done the double over Real Madrid. Bayern are good, but I'm not sure they're in the same class as the rest. We will know the draw next week, but it will be interesting to see the teams. With the January transfer window coming up, some clubs might add a player or two with an eye towards their Champions League opponent.
