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The draw for the 2017-18 Champions League Round of 16 was held today in Nyon, Switzerland, and if you thought the road to the quarterfinals might get a little easier for Tottenham Hotspur, well, it hasn’t. Tottenham was the second ball out of the bowl, drawing two-time Champions League champions Juventus, one of the two most difficult pairings they could’ve landed.
Juventus are a very good side, and they were UCL runners up last season, losing out to Real Madrid in the championship game. They will be formidable opponents for a Tottenham team that has already run the gauntlet in this year’s competition, but Spurs have already proven their mettle by winning the Group of Death, which featured Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and APOEL. This Juventus side seems to have fallen off a bit from last season. They are beatable, though it won’t be easy.
Also, the last time Spurs had to play against Serie A teams in the Champions League it didn’t turn out so badly for them: in the 2010-11 competition Spurs split matches against defending champions Inter Milan in the group stages and defeated AC Milan in the Round of 16 before bowing out to Real Madrid in the quarterfinals. An away day to Turin? Ain’t no thing.
And that wasn’t even the tastiest match up of the draw! Tottenham’s Premier League rivals Chelsea drew Barcelona, and Real Madrid drew Paris St-Germain.
The first leg of the matches will take place February 13/14 and February 20/21. The schedule has not yet been set, but we’ll let you know when it is and when Spurs will be heading to Turin.
Here’s the full Champions League draw.
- Juventus vs. Tottenham Hotspur
- Basel vs. Manchester City
- Porto vs. Liverpool
- Sevilla vs. Manchester United
- Real Madrid vs. PSG
- Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Roma
- Chelsea vs. Barcelona
- Bayern Munich vs. Besiktas