2005//2006 Champions League First Knockout Stages:
(February 21/22 & March 7/8)

Group Winners:
A. Juventus
B. Arsenal
C. Barcelona
D. Villareal
E. AC Milan
F. Lyon
G. Liverpool
H. Inter Milan

Group Runners-up:

A. Bayern
B. Ajax
C. Bremen
D. Benfica
E. PSV
F. Real Madrid
G. Chelsea
H. Rangers

Draw conditions

The draw respects the following principles:
* Clubs from the same association must not be drawn against each other, with the exception of Liverpool who have no country protection.
* The winners and runners-up of the same group must not be drawn against each other.
* Group winners must not be drawn against each other.
* Group runners-up must not be drawn against each other.
* All group runners-up will play their first-leg matches at home.

The draw for the first knockout stages will take place Friday December 16, 2005.

Like most of you guys, i'm anxious to see who Arsenal will go against. Following the draw conditions, which teams do you guys want to face most and which team do you guys hope you won't have to go against?

I'd really like to see Arsenal vs. Real Madrid and if not, then Arsenal vs. Rangers.

I hope we don't draw against Bayern though - they seem to be doing very good domestically.

we can rule out Ajax..and Chelsea so out of the remaing 6 i would like to watch a Real vs. Arsenal game... but Arsenal's defence aint that watertight and Real would be able to poke holes in our defence.. but i'd prefer Arsenal vs any team other than Real or Bayern... perhaps Rangers or Benfica..

I do think that these teams could beat Arsenal, so...

I think the worst draw for Arsenal, and indeed Liverpool would be Rangers....Battle of Britain clashes always bring out the best, and those have more chance of a shock result than Arsenal playing Benfica.

Where is the final !

Paris, If you'd read my thing in the Rangers forum it would have told you that !!!!!!! Some people eh...

i would like to see Bayern vs Arsenal because this should be 2 interesting matches and because Bayern like to play attacking teams like Arsenal.
Liverpool vs Real should be nice as we can prove our good defence against a good attacking team and we should have good chances to slow them down.

as long as its not Bayern vs Liverpool then its all cool to me.

Bayern are too Organised for my likeing i do not want them again.

Rangers is what i want it will be a great tie.

I actually think that the worst draw for us would be an English team. They play just as fast and powerful as we do. Barca, Villereal and Lyon would all still beat us, but we would give them a game to remember. Not one second on the ball, no time to relax and a hellishly fast and scrappy pace.

Weakest team in the top seeds in Villeral though. We are the weakest in the second seeds.

Man, I am really predicting an Inter/Chelsea draw, that will be a dandy. I just hope our players are ready for all the flares.

To be honest, from what I have seen of those two team this season, I would fully expect Chelsea to win rather comfortably. All well and good having the star players, but when they play so toothlessly, its means little.

Chelsea vs Lyon would be pretty special I think.

The two teams I'd like to see Benfica avoid are Lyon and Barca. Now that I have said it. it'll probably happen.

For Benfica i would like Arsenal or Inter Milan.

Lyon vs. Bremen would probably hold the best entertainment value - they're both very attacking teams.

I smell a Barça - Chelsea rematch.

Personally I don't care who we draw, but of course I'd prefer a weaker opponent first (Rangers, Ajax, etc).

I'd love to see the anti-football teams get paired up and bore each other to defeat (Milan vs. Bayern, Juve vs. Chelsea)

Juve vs chelsea would be amazing. I wouldnt have to see at least one of them after the game.

I want Real Madrid , Ajax or Benfica. Because it will be good match and good chance Liverpool can progress. In case of Madrid.. I just want Rafa , Moro to go back there as Champion of Europe cause I think they will get quite a reception from madridista.

Apart from the fact that it's different from last season run , Leverkusen (germany) , Juventus (Italy) , Chelski (Eng). Just want to match with teams from different leagues.

Rangers is tricky tie since we all knew their style very well and believe me if Liverpool pair with them it could be like FA Cup Match which won't be good and it could turn out either way we got bullied over or we outclassed them.

Actually I don't want any battle of britain at all after last season Semi and this season group stage. I think it is quite too much.

I would like to see
1-LIVERPOOL vs Benfica or
2-LIVERPOOL vs Real Madrid or
3-LIVERPOOL vs Rangers

hhhmmmm

The scousers want Benfica ay.............thats ok. We wouldnt mind Liverpool either!

I'd like to match up against Barça. Would be awesome to see Ronnie play in real life and I'd also love to go to the Camp Nou. Unfortunatly this would surely result in 2 big losses.

So if not matched against Barça I'd like Liverpool or Villareal. 2 teams we would stand a chance against and Anfield is nice too.

You live in Netherlands?

so this teams are boring because they didn't rocked in their group or what?
those teams like to face attacking minded teams but in the group stages they were the favorites so they had to make the game which they don't like too much.
i could agree on Milan and Juve, but even Chelsea produced entertainment last CL season when they played vs Bayern(4-2 and 2-3) and Barca(1-2 and 4-2) so they are not really that boring in the CL.
as you can see the results were pretty similar so if Chelsea and Bayern are boring this could mean that Barca is also boring because they produced similar results?
of course Barca is not boring and at least Bayern is surely not boring aswell.
Bayern also faced Arsenal in the knock out stages last season and played 3-1 and 0-1 because they look more better against those teams than against Juventus etc.
at least Bayern and Chelsea aren't typical boring teams, are they?

one thing is for sure, any of those 4 teams can give Barca 2 very hard games so it looks like you wouldn't mind that Barca could avoid such hard challenges on their way to the CL title.
those teams can slow down attacking teams well and score the needed goals so i guess Barca themselves don't wanna face any of those 4 too soon.
if Barca has to face Chelsea or Bayern next round then Barca should worry more about it than those 2.

overall, those 4 teams are not the most exciting teams indeed, but as we all know
"Offence wins games, Defence wins championships"
they have just a very good balance and are hard to play.


in the end it would be interesting to see when Barca fans notice when they face such teams that "boring" could turn into a "overall better than us".

Bayern vs Arsenal or Barca should be nice, entertaining and with with a happy end for myself.
bring them on.

So Liverpool fans want Madrid ey? Well, don't underestimate them mates. Sure they suck balls , but they still arn't one of those teams that I want to face. I see them progressing to atleast the semi-finals, eventually being knocked out by Barca .

As for Barca, I'd like to play Benfica or Rangers. Chelsea would be sweet too. We would massacre them .

I want a Chelsea vs Barce Remach big time and i want Barce to finish what they started and slaughter them as they should have last season.

Any ways

I want for Arsenal to get Benfica maybe Rangers just because there not as hard as the others then i want us to get a big teams maybe Juve or Madrid, if Arsenal make the final i also hope its 1 of them because i want us to show Robinho/Baptista and Vieira exactly what there missing

I think Arsenal as long as we dont have serios injury trouble we can do realy well in the Champions League this season i just hope we avoid Barcelona as i think they would beat us by a goal or 2 overall.

When is the draw made ?

December 16, 2005.

I would absolutely love to see Lyon vs Barcelona, these two teams are the best in Europe at the moment.

I would love for us to play Arsenal or Juve. The Arsenal match would be a brilliant, entertaining, goal fest of a match, with two offensively minded teams playing one another. And I want Juve, because the last 2 times we've played them in European competition, they have knocked us out.



I would'nt underestimate Villarreal, with Forlan returning they'll be even better, and there is the possibility of Sergio 'Kun' Aguero moving they'll be quite lethal upfront.

Yes, I do. Why do you ask?

Yeah, but there is no chance in encountering them in the first stage because they are from Spain, and teams from the same federations will not meet then.

i would love to see barca-chelsea again, this time i think barca would smash them, messi would go absolutely nuts and so would ronaldinho, they would rip through chelsea

for Liverpool i would like to see us paired up with rangers, it would be a massive match with the passionate fans for both sides creating an amazing atmosphere

I want Rangers, that'll give us the best chance of progressing. Then maybe PSV. Then as a last resort, Bremen because they attack a lot and our defense is good, so if we play defensively and keep the ball out of our net, we can kill them off on the counter-attacks, hopefully.

But as for other draws I would like to see...

Liverpool/Real Madrid
Chelsea/Inter
Bayern/Barcelona
Juventus/PSV

True, Bayern and Chelsea aren't as "boring" but they do resort to extremely boring tactics at times. Technically there's nothing wrong with that, but as a fan of the beautiful game I want to see good football at all times. Don't get me wrong, all of those teams are strong but when an offensively gifted team like Chelsea plays like a Spanish Segunda Division side you can't help but say something (1st leg vs. Barça). I understand that sometimes such tactics are needed in order to win, but it really kills the game. Also, there's a difference between playing it safe/smart and just playing 10 men behind the ball at all times. I know that Barça have learned their lesson and will undoubtedly play more conservatively at times, but that's not the same as playing catenaccio.

I'd be lying if I didn't say that I wouldn't mind avoiding some of those clubs. You often need luck in the CL, whether it's luck on who you draw or a lucky bounce during the game. Of course I want us to beat all the best, but if we draw weaker teams then I'm not going to complain

Besides, who wouldn't mind seeing 4 powerhouses eliminating one another? I sure as hell wouldn't

Not really underestimating them mate, just feel everybody else there is stronger. As I said in the post, they would still destroy us. Villereal are a very good team.

BRING I TON

I would love that too. But that would be better for the final. Would be a final for the ages. Lyon would also get home advantage. Lyon are an incredible team, I want to see them go far. Would be dissapointing if we knocked them out of the round of 16.

I wish we were allowed to Madrid so we could kick their asses again. Would be fun.

I wasn't saying I'd like to face Villarreal, just stating that they shouldn't be underestimated.

chelsea vs barcelona

liverpool vs ajax or benfica or real madrid

am sure it will be something similar to this and i hope the draws will be as follows:-
Arsenal/Real Madrid
Chelsea/AC
Benifica/Barcelona
Juventus/PSV
Liverpool/W/Bremen
Bayern/Lyon
Inter/Ajax
Villareal/Rangers

when is the actual draw?

I know its on december 16th but what time is it during that day. I live in New York so maybe someone could give me a time for then. cheers

as for chelsea, the only team i want to avoid is barca. I definitely think we can take them, but they are the toughest team in group 1. My mouth waters at a Juve-Chelsea matchup

The draw is 11:00 GMT, which is 06:00 EST, I think

It's 6:00 for us living on the east coast (US).

I really wanna see what the draw is but i just finished all of my finals in college & have nothing to do so no way i'm going to wake up that early to see the draw.

I'll check out the draw when i wake up.

So the draw is in 11 hours and 20 minutes? someone please countdown for me.

I will post each draw live as it happens in this post no point in making a new thread

Unless 1 of the mods want it

Bayern --v-- AC MILAN

Ajax --v-- INTER

W. Bremen--v-- JUVENTUS

Benfica --v-- LIVERPOOL

PSV --v-- LYON

R. Madrid --v-- ARSENAL

Chelsea --v-- BARCELONA

Rangers --v-- VILLAREAL


Good Luck to each Respective Club.

Cant Wait

where's Liverpool ^^

There group winners

Check back a page im posting draw.

Chelsea vs FC Barcelona
Real Madrid FC vs Arsenal FC
Weder Bremen vs Juventus
FC Bayern Munchen vs AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven vs Lyon
AFC Ajax vs Inter Milan
Benfica vs Liverpool
Rangers FC vs Villarreal FC

What a Draw some Awsome Games

Arsenal will Show Robinho and Baptista were they realy should be

All I can say is wow.

This draw is amazing.

Yup great draw Some matches that will be!

It could have turned out worse for Ajax. Inter is a team that is able to play your own game against, and thats where ajax quality's are. Funny to see that the gers are heading the weakest team possible, they still dont have a chance tho