FC Porto and Benfica have a rare seeding status in the draw for the round of 16 of the Football Champions League, which will be held next Monday (11am), but that hasn’t stopped them from crossing paths with ‘unwanted’ opponents.
The two teams, placed in pot 1, as winners of the respective groups of the first phase, will cross with pot 2, knowing that Benfica cannot be drawn with Paris Saint-Germain, by Danilo Pereira, Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Renato Sanches , and FC Porto with Club Brugge, their opponents in the group stage.
For the rest, Benfica and FC Porto find Liverpool, of Diogo Jota and Fábio Carvalho, probably the most feared opponent in pot 2, the Italians of Inter Milan and AC Milan, of Rafael Leão, or the Germans of Eintracht Frankfurt, of Aurélio Buta, Leipzig, by André Silva, or Borussia Dortmund, by Raphaël Guerreiro.
Benfica can also compete against Club Brugge and FC Porto against Paris Saint-Germain, with the exception of the impossibility of the ‘eagles’ against the French, as they have already seen them, and the Belgians against the ‘dragons’, within the same context.
Among the seeds of the series, and therefore out of the way of FC Porto and Benfica for the time being, are the champions Real Madrid, the Italians from Naples, from Mário Rui, the English from Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City, from Rúben Dias, João Cancelo and Bernardo Silva, and the Germans from Bayern Munich.
The draw of the Champions League is scheduled for 11am (Lisbon time), just before the draw of the Europa League (12pm), with Sporting in the play-off, and the Europa League (1pm) with Sporting de Braga .
Pot 1: Napoli (Ita), FC PORTO (POR), Bayern Munich (Ale), Tottenham (Ing), Chelsea (Ing), Real Madrid (Esp), Manchester City (Ing) and BENFICA (POR).
Pot 2: Liverpool (Ing), Club Brugge (Bel), Inter Milan (Ita), Eintracht Frankfurt (Ale), AC Milan (Ita), Leipzig (Ale), Borussia Dortmund (Ale) and Paris Saint-Germain (Fra) .
Lion in the Europa League and Sp. Braga in the Conference League
Sporting, eliminated from the Champions League, ends up third in their group in the Europa League play-off, in which the draw (at 12 noon) with the other third parties will be one of the second of the second UEFA find competition. to make it to the round of 16.
The scenario means that Sporting could cross paths with Roma, from José Mourinho and Rui Patrício, PSV Eindhoven, Rennes, Union Berlin, from Diogo Leite, Manchester United, from Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, Midtjylland, Nantes or Monaco , by Gelson Martins.
In the Europa League League (draw is at 1:00 PM), Sporting de Braga, relegated third in the Europa League group stage, will play the ‘play-off’ to access the ‘octave’ against a team that has the group stage of third match in second place in their group.
In Braga’s path are Fiorentina, Anderlecht, from Fábio Silva, Partizan Belgrade, Dnipro, Ghent, Cluj, from Zé Gomes, Basel and Lech Poznan, from João Amaral, Joel Pereira, Pedro Rebocho and Afonso Sousa.
Europa League (play-off to access the round of 16):
Pot 1: PSV Eindhoven (Hol), Rennes (Fra), Union Berlin (Ale), Roma (Ita), Manchester United (Ing), Midtjylland (Din), Nantes (Fra) and Monaco (Fra).
Pot 2: Ajax (Hol), Bayer Leverkusen (Ale), FC Barcelona (Esp), SPORTING (POR), Salzburg (Aut), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ucr), Sevilla (Esp) and Juventus (Ita).
Europa Conference League (play-off for access to the round of 16):
Pot 1: Fiorentina (Ita), Anderlecht (Bel), Lech Poznan (Pol), Partizan Belgrade (Ser), Dnipro (Ucr), Ghent (Bel), Cluj (Rom) and Basel (Sui).
Pot 2: Bodo/Glimt (Nor), AEK Larnaca (Chp), Ludogorets (Bul), SPORTING DE BRAGA (POR), Sheriff (Mol), Lazio (Ita), Qarabag (Aze) and Trabzonspor (Tur).
Source: DN
