Today UEFA will hold the draw for the Champions League round of 16.

The 16 teams that advanced from the group stage will find out who their next knockout opponents will be after the draw takes place in Nyon, Switzerland today.

The draw took place at 12:00 local time, which is 18:00 today, December 12th, in Hanoi time.

The 16 teams that reached this stage include Arsenal, PSG (first and second in Group A), Napoli, Benfica (Group B), Barca, Man City (Group C), Atletico Madrid, Bayern (Group D), Monaco, Leverkusen (Group E), Dortmund, Real Madrid (Group F), Leicester, Porto (Group G), and Juventus, Sevilla (Group H).

According to UEFA regulations, these 16 teams will be divided into two groups: a seeded group consisting of the eight teams that finished first in their groups, and an unseeded group for the eight teams that finished second in their groups. Based on this, UEFA will conduct a draw to select the eight knockout matches.

The Champions League is the most prestigious club competition in Europe. Photo: UEFA.

Teams from the same country or those who met in the group stage will not face each other in the round of 16. For example, Man City – the runner-up in Group C – will not be able to meet fellow English teams Arsenal, Leicester, or their Group C team, Barcelona.

Seeded teams will have priority to play the second leg at home.

According to this pairing system, Real Madrid, who finished second in Group F and are in the unseeded group, are considered to have the most advantages.

Zidane and Real Madrid benefited greatly from finishing second in the group. Photo: Reuters.

Because they all come from Spain, Real will not have to face Barca and Atletico. Meanwhile, apart from Juventus and to some extent Arsenal, the remaining seeded teams (Napoli, Monaco, Leicester) cannot compare to Zidane's team in terms of squad quality, class, and experience.

Arsenal have been jinxed at the round of 16 for the past six seasons. This time, they still face a risky scenario, because as group winners, they could very well run into the two second-placed giants, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

With the remaining second-placed teams, including Benfica, Leverkusen, Porto, and Sevilla, Wenger's team is expected to have the easiest match if they face Benfica. The Portuguese representative is among the three teams that have conceded the most goals out of the 16 teams that advanced from the group stage (10 goals conceded, the same as Man City and Real Madrid).

The first leg matches of the round of 16 took place on February 13, 14, 20 and 21, 2017. The second leg matches took place on March 6, 7, 13 and 14.

What opponents could the four giants Real, Barca, Bayern, and PSG face in the round of 16?

According to VNE