Champions League draw: Egypt’s Salah takes on Porto, Ronaldo faces Neymar

The eagerly anticipated last-16 draw of the UEFA Champions League has lined up Egyptian and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah to face Porto, who are currently top of the Portuguese league, Primeira Liga.

The tie of the round, however, will see Cristiano Ronaldo take on Neymar, as current holders and the competition’s most successful side, Real Madrid, battle for a place in the quarter finals against big-spending French heavyweights PSG, who broke a record with most goals scored in the group stages after hitting 25 in six matches.

Elsewhere, fifth-placed Spanish team Sevilla will host Manchester United, Chelsea come up against Spanish leaders Barcelona, Italian champions Juventus face Tottenham Hotspur. While Basel host Manchester City, Bayern Munich face Basel, and Shakhtar Donetsk take on Roma.

The draw, held on Monday in the Swiss city of Nyon, determined fixtures for 16 teams to compete in the knockout stage of the competition.

The rules of the tournament stipulate that teams from the same group, country, or association cannot be drawn against each other.

Winners of each of the groups in the previous round – which concluded last Wednesday – take on teams which finished in second place in other groups.

In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight group runners-up are unseeded. Seeded teams are drawn against unseeded teams, with seeded teams hosting the second leg.

The group winners were: Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City, Beşiktaş, and Tottenham Hotspur. While runners-up were: Basel, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk, Porto, Real Madrid.

The first leg of last-16 matches will be played during 13, 14, 20, and 21 February, while the second leg of matches will take place on March 6, 7, 13, and 14. Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm

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