UEFA Champions League Draw: Chelsea-Inter Highlights Round of 16

UEFA has held its draws for the knock-out stages of the Champions and Europa Leagues (the latter will be covered in another post).

The sixteen clubs advancing  were divided into two pots based on their finish in group stage finish - first places finishers in one pot (of eight), second place finishers in the other.  

Pairings resulting from one team from each pot being drawn against each other had only two caveats:  (a) you could not be drawn with a club with whom you were grouped in the preceding round, and (b) you could not be drawn into a pairing with a club from your federation.

Before we get to the to pairings, a reminder on who qualified from Groups A through H (listed in that order):

Winners:  Bordeaux (France), Manchester United (England), Real Madrid (Spain), Chelsea (England), Fiorentina (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Sevilla (Spain), Arsenal (England)

Runners-up:  Bayern Munich (Germany), CSKA Moscow (Russia), AC Milan (Italy), FC Porto (Portugal), Lyon (France), Inter Milan (Italy), Stuttgart (Germany), Olympiacos (Greece)

And with that, he is the draw for the Round of 16.  The team on the left will host the first of the two legs:

More thoughts on today's draw:

If you don't think I'm going to write 4,217 words on each of these pairings, you haven't been following this site enough. This is where it starts to get exciting.

Before getting into winners, losers, and premature picks, here is the chronological schedule of the first leg matches:

February 16, 2010

Lyon vs. Real Madrid (Stade de Gerland, Lyon)
Milan vs. Manchester United (San Siro, Milan)

February 17, 2010

Bayern Munich vs. Fiorentina (Allianz Arena, Munich)
Porto vs. Arsenal (Estádio do Dragão, Proto)

February 23, 2010

Olympiacos vs. Bordeaux (Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus)
Stuttgart vs. Barcelona (Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart)

February 24, 2010

CSKA Moscow vs. Sevilla (Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow)
Internazionale vs. Chelsea (San Siro, Milan)

The reverse fixtures take place two weeks later, with the Tuesday matches switching to Wednesday (and vice-versa).

Winners

1. Bordeaux - Gets one of the two weakest clubs from the second pot, gets the first leg on the road, and gets a chance to augment their lack of knock-out round experience with a manageable obstacle.
2. Real Madrid - Lyon will not be easy, especially if they can get back on track (something that might happen at Claude Puel's expense), but there was some very precarious stylistic match-ups Madrid could have gotten (Internazionale, Porto), and given this year's expectations at the Santiago Bernabeu combine with their recent failures in this competition, a dangerous Lyon side is a relative win.

Losers

1. Chelsea - They are still favorites, but this Inter side one the Blues would have wanted to avoid.  Employing an increasingly narrow approach, the Nerazzurri has a concentration of midfield talent in the center.  Additionally, Chelsea's problems at the back are open to exploiting by Wesley Sneijder connection with Diego Milito and Samuel Eto'o.  And that doesn't even mention Chelsea's recent problems on set pieces.
2. Fiorentina - The Viola get one of the danger teams from the lower pot, a match-up they may not like, as Bayern's new found dynamism will test a midfield and back line that will have trouble staying with Olic, Müller, Schweinsteiger, Robben and Ríbery.

Best Match-ups

1. Chelsea-Internazionale
2. Manchester United-Milan
3. Arsenal-Porto

Early Picks

Barcelona 5-1 Stuttgart
Bordeaux 2-0 Olympiacos
Chelsea 2-1 Internazionale
Bayern Munich 4-2 Fiorentina
Sevilla 5-3 CSKA Moscow
Real Madrid 5-2 Lyon
Arsenal 3-2 Porto
Manchester United 3-1 Milan

Those predictions are for both legs and are subject to change.  By intent, I didn't give them much though, which may explain who you disagree with them, my best match-ups, the winners and losers.  Regardless, I'm in a mood to talk about this, and will be for two months.

Who are your winners, losers and picks?