Tomorrow morning in Nyon Switzerland at the UEFA headquarters the draw for the first knockout stage of the Champions League will be made. Arsenal could face any one of the group runners-up except FC Porto and there are some big names looming on the horizon.
The first leg will send Arsenal away on February 20th or 21st, with the return leg at the Grove on March 6th or 7th.
The teams progressing from the group stages are as follows.
Group Winners
AC Milan (ITA)
Arsenal (ENG)
Bayern Munich (GER)
Chelsea (ENG)
Lyon (FRA)
Liverpool (ENG)
Manchester United (ENG)
Valencia (SPA)
Group Runners-Up
Barcelona (SPA)
Celtic (SCO)
Inter Milan (ITA)
Lille (FRA)
Porto (POR)
PSV Eindhoven (HOL)
Real Madrid (SPA)
Roma (ITA)
I'm going to play devils advocate and predict that the Gunners will be drawn against one of the Arsenal old boys. So be preapred for a trip to watch Reyes play in Madrid, Vieira play in Milan or van Bronckhorst and Sylvinho play in Barcelona.
It would be nice to avoid a reunion with the Arsenal old-boys at the stage so trips to Roma, Lille, PSV Eindhoven or Celtic would be preferred. But Arsenal never get the easy draw do they?
I'd love to send Chelsea and Manchester United to Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, but that would just be to good wouldn't it?
We'll wait and see.
