Chelsea and Paris St-Germain are the current holders of the Fifa Club World Cup and Champions League respectively
Published February 27, 2026 • Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c70njrx7enwo
By Ben Collins
Chelsea will play holders Paris St-Germain in the Champions League round of 16 while Manchester City will face Real Madrid in the knockout stages for a fifth straight season.
Although six Premier League clubs have qualified for the last 16 there will be no all-English ties, with leaders Arsenal to face Bayer Leverkusen.
Newcastle United will meet Barcelona, Liverpool take on Galatasaray and Tottenham have been drawn against Atletico Madrid.
The first legs will be played on 10 and 11 March, with the second legs to take place on 17 and 18 March.
Newcastle are at home for their first leg with Barca, while their Premier League rivals are all at home for their second leg having qualified for the last 16 automatically.
Chelsea's tie with PSG is a rematch of last year's Fifa Club World Cup final, when the Blues beat PSG 3-0 in New Jersey.
"It'll be tough but it holds no fear for us," said Chelsea's director of football David Barnard.
Man City, Newcastle and Liverpool all met their opponents during the league phase of this season's competition.
The route to the final is already known and if Newcastle and Tottenham both progress, they will meet in the quarter-finals, as will Chelsea and Liverpool in the other half of the draw.
The final will be played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday, 30 May.
Who are the Champions League favourites?
Arsenal finished top of the league phase having been the only team to win all eight games, while Bayern Munich were three points behind in second.
If they get past Leverkusen, Arsenal will face either Sporting or Bodo/Glimt in the quarter-finals and Opta rate Mikel Arteta's team as favourites to win this season's competition - by some distance.
They give the Gunnners a 27.40% chance of being crowned European champions for the first time, with Bayern ranked next best at 14.28%.
Liverpool (12.83%) are third favourites with Man City (10.79%) seen as having a far better chance of wining the Champions League than 15-time winners Real Madrid (2.78%).
Chelsea (6.86%) are also deemed to have a better chance than their last-16 opponents PSG (4.64%)
"You can look at the bracket but you can't take things for granted," said Chelsea's director of football David Barnard.
Tottenham, who qualified for the Champions League by winning last season's Europa League, could face north London rivals Arsenal in the semi-finals and are seen as outsiders to go all the way (1.22%).
"At this stage, anything can happen and every game is winnable," said former Tottenham defender Gary Mabbutt.
"I was here this time last year and we were drawn for the Europa League. We got through to the final last year and became champions, so who knows."
Watch highlights of every Champions League game from 22:00 on Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.
There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 22:40 to 00:00.