The balls have spoken (not literally, of course – unless you’re Jamie Redknapp). This is what the balls said:
VfB Stuttgart v Barcelona
Olympiakos v Bordeaux
Inter v Chelsea
Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla
Lyon v Real Madrid
Porto v Arsenal
AC Milan v Man Utd
First thoughts: Jose Mourinho is going back to Chelsea, David Beckham is going back to Man Utd – those are the two headline-grabbing sub-plots. Arsenal should be relatively happy to draw Porto – the Gunners should go through – while Chelsea and Man Utd have been given relatively tough assignments, especially Chelsea, who must face-off against the Special One they ditched. I can smell the hype already.
Off the bat, I’d pick Barcelona, Bordeaux, Chelsea, Bayern, Sevilla, Real, Arsenal and Man Utd to progress. Boring maybe, but can’t see too many shocks in there.
Your reaction to the draw?