The draw will start at 12:00CET on Friday 17 March. It is taking place at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Teams I want in order from easiest to hardest: Leicester, Monaco, Dortmund, Atleti, Barca, Juve, Bayern
Don't even worry guys. You'll definitely get Leicester. And Dortmund and Monaco will be drawn against each other, to ensure that one of them survives to match up against you in the semifinals. Book it. (And yes, I know Monaco actually looks good this season. They're still Monaco though). And, I'd love to be wrong, but there's basically a 0% chance Real Madrid and Barca get matched up against each other in the QFs. UEFA would lose too much money with one of them definitely out in the QFs. Well, actually, I wouldn't really want to play you guys, so I wouldn't actually love to be wrong. But I'd love to be wrong that the draws are, shall we say, not exactly random.
The obvious preferred Leicester aside, I might just pick Atletico out of these tougher sides. A) It looks they are a step or two behind compared to how compact and organized they were in previous seasons. B) We tend to do well against them in CL. C) Opposed to other teams' attacking lines (Monaco, BVB) who are more likely to exploit our poor tactics and GK's form, it looks Atletico are more containable, and we are already used to play against them 3 or 4 times every season, so I like our chances vs. them if we don't go with the BBC, but sadly I know this is a big if to hold out for.
Leicester, Monaco, BVB, Juve, Atleti, Bayern, and Barca. The last 3 are pretty much interchangeable for me though. Atleti are not the Atleti of years past. Carlo has just gotten things rolling at Bayern but don't let the Arsenal result fool you, they haven't been as strong as previous years. Barca's midfield especially with Gomes playing is ripe for picking. PSG being bitches and the ref being Barca's 12th man made people forget how bad they've been playing. We can defintely beat them if our bench is used properly.
I don't have any preference. I don't need to explain about Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich. Monaco and Borussia Dortmund got some talented youngsters who might surprise us.... given we have been overconfident against weaker opponents in the past. They might actually be tougher than Juventus, a team I respected. Atletico Madrid will always be a big match.... hey. it is only the quarterfinal. We don't need any additional baggage in the quarterfinal. We still need to play league matches. Leicester seemed to be the only team that does not worry me at all.
Throw in Bayern and I'm sold. This isn't the CL drawing of past years. Very very competitive list of teams with the only easier team being Leicester. My order of preference... Leicester Atleti Monaco Dortmund Juve/barca/bayern Juve are built to frustrate us and score late which has been our downfall. bayern, barca, Monaco and Dortmund have the speed and offesive might to cause us trouble in midfield and at the back. Atleti has been inconsistent and Zidane has done decently against them. Leicester is Leicester. No excuse for any of the remaining teams not to easily go through against them. Strange things can happen though.
That's my thought as well when I went to check who were left. Basically the entire list except Leicester are teams that on other occassions I would have rather not wanted, and this time the quarters are filled with them as opposed to there being 2-3 teams I'd feel very comfortable with drawing. Basically I'll want to see every game next round. Luckily though: Are the chances as high as Barça getting a free red card and penalty in every game? If so: YEAHhh!!! Pop the champagne bottles bitches!! Where Rick Astley at? Where Rick Astley at!?!
Why would you care about the draw anyway? You have your refs ready whenever you're in danger of elimination.
Leicester obviously. All the rest of the teams can beat us. Honestly. We haven't done well recently. But we can beat them too on our day.
If we want to win it we need to be able beat all of them. And ffs we are Real Madrid. They should be afraid to draw us, not us them. I agree that all games will be very exciting though.