By Victor Kanayo
Reigning champions Real Madrid will face 2023 winners Manchester City in the play-off round of this season’s Champions League, following Friday’s draw.
Also, Celtic will face six-time European champions Bayern Munich in the play-off round.
The Scottish champions have reached the knockout stage for the first time in 12 years and last faced Bayern in the group phase of the 2017/18 season, losing both home and away.
Madrid finished one point below the automatic qualification places in the league table in 11th, while City came back to seal a 3-1 win over Club Brugge on the final day, edging their way into the play-offs in 22nd place.
City will have home advantage in the first leg and have won four of their previous 12 meetings with Madrid in the competition (D5 L3).
However, Madrid have knocked an English club out of the Champions League knockout stages 13 times; only Los Blancos themselves have eliminated opponents from a specific nation more often in the competition (16 times against German clubs).
Under the new format, clubs from the same country can face each other in the play-offs, with Brest and Paris Saint-Germain drawn against each other in an all-French tie in Friday’s draw.
Juventus and AC Milan avoided a clash at this stage, though, and will face Dutch clubs PSV and Feyenoord, respectively.
Juventus have won five of their last eight meetings with Dutch opponents in major European competitions (D2 L1), one more than their previous 13 against Dutch opponents (W4 D4 L5).
Milan’s last success against a Dutch opponent in a major European competition, meanwhile, came in October 2008 in the UEFA Cup against Heerenveen (D3 L1 since).
Full Play-off Fixtures:
Paris Saint-Germain vs Stade Brestois
Benfica vs AS Monaco
Juventus vs PSV
Feyenoord vs AC Milan
Real Madrid vs Manchester City
Bayern Munich vs Celtic
Club Brugge vs Atalanta
Sporting CP vs Borussia Dortmund.
