Chelsea also face a testing tie against Paris Saint-Germain, the third season in succession they have met in the knockout stages.
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Manchester City supporters will not be able to attend the away leg in Ukraine with Dynamo Kiev serving a stadium ban.
Arsenal secretary David Miles was quick to admit that the draw was not what Arsenal fans had hoped for.
“By finishing second in our group we had some big teams to avoid. The two teams have not changed much and know each other well”.
In the 2006 final, the Catalan club won 2-1 thanks to a late Juliano Belletti goal, and in 2010 Arsenal lost 6-3 on aggregate in the quarterfinals.
Monday’s draw pitted the Parisians against the Blues for the third season in a row, with Chelsea winning their first meeting in the 2013/14 quarter-finals, before PSG got revenge in last season’s round of 16.
Club secretary David Barnard said: “At least we know a lot about PSG”.
Though the Gunners’ style of play is admired by Enrique’s side, they feel it suits their style of play and those within the Camp Nou feel they’ve been handed a good draw. “We are ambitious, we have 2½ months to prepare”, Olivier Létang, the PSG sports director, said.
“Everybody wanted to avoid Barcelona and Bayern, so we are not so lucky, but Bayern will not be glad they drew Juve”, Pavel Nedved, the former Juventus midfielder, said.
Dutch team PSV Eindhoven plays 2014 finalist Atletico Madrid and Benfica tackles Zenit St. Petersburg.
Struggling Manchester United are due to play Danish champions FC Midtjylland in the same competition, while Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp faces a return to Germany when the Reds play Augsburg.
Meanwhile, Manchester City fans will be unable to travel to Kiev after the Ukrainian club was ordered to play its next European game behind closed doors due to crowd racism and disturbances during October’s group game against Chelsea.
It is the game between the pacesetters in Spain and Arsenal which most catches the eye, however.
“When it comes to the crucial moments of the season, the knockout stages of the Champions League and the end of the local leagues, they are more exhausted because they didn’t have a winter break”.
“We have a few injured players, so if we can get those back and play them with a full-strength Arsenal side we’ve got some world-class players of our own and I’m hoping we’ll put on a very good show in the two legs”. In France they are unbeaten, having won 15 and drawn three of their 18 matches. We must have maximum respect for Arsenal, they’re a great team and although we have a hard task ahead it will be a guaranteed spectacle of football. I’m sure we’ll have some problems playing against them, so let’s wait and see.
“Barca will have to be very focused and completely switched on because from now on there is no chance of rectifying any mistakes; during the group stages you still have room for error, but from now on, no”. “If we see ourselves as favourites things won’t go well for us”, said Real director Emilio Butragueno.
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The Gunners have previously said that they don’t want to face the Spanish giants.
