Champions League draw LIVE: Arsenal and Manchester City discover last-16 fates

The Premier League sides received favourable draws for the last-16 while Barcelona play Napoli and Inter Milan take on Atletico Madrid

Arteta on Arsenal important 2-0 win over Brighton

Arsenal will face Porto in the Champions League last-16 while holders Manchester City take on FC Copenhagen.

The Gunners qualified as group winners after making an impressive return to Europe’s top club competition and will travel to Porto before hosting their first Champions League knockout tie in seven years at the Emirates.

Defending champions Manchester City were also handed a favourable draw as they play Danish side Copenhagen, who beat Manchester United in the group stages to qualify for the last-16.

There will be a clash between the Spanish champions and the Italian champions when Barcelona meet Napoli, while Paris Saint-Germain avoided a heavyweight draw after finishing as runners-up in Group F and were paired with Real Sociedad.

Last season’s runners-up Inter Milan will take on Atletico Madrid, themselves defeated finalists in 2014 and 2016, PSV will meet Borussia Dortmund and Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich face Lazio. Real Madrid will play RB Leipzig.

Follow along for the latest updates from the Champions League last-16 draw, and get all the latest football betting sites offers here.

Champions League last-16 draw

• The Champions League last-16 draw took place at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland
• Arsenal draw Porto in the first fixture out of the hat
• Man City will face FC Copenhagen in the last 16
• Champions League last 16 draw in full

[18 December 2023 11:13 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

John Terry now pulls Napoli out of the unseeded pot...

... the Italian side will take on Barcelona!

[18 December 2023 11:12 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

The first team drawn out is FC Porto...

... they will be facing Arsenal!

[18 December 2023 11:10 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

The rules of the draw are now being explained.

Seeded teams are drawn against unseeded teams. Teams cannot face others from their own domestic leagues nor anyone they faced in the group stages.

Seeded teams, or group winners, will play their home leg second.

[18 December 2023 11:07 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

Uefa Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti is introduced to oversee the draw as he does with all the draws for European competitions.

Despite the previous video, he gives an opening speech recapping the group stages before explaining that this season was the last to feature a group stages ahead of the new format being introduced next year.

John Terry, the former Chelsea captain, will be helping out with the draw.

[18 December 2023 11:05 · Mike Jones]

A reminder of the last 16 teams

Group winners (seeded): Arsenal (ENG), Atlético de Madrid (ESP), Barcelona (ESP), Bayern Munich (GER), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Manchester City (ENG), Real Madrid (ESP), Real Sociedad (ESP)

Group runners-up (unseeded): FC Copenhagen (DEN), Inter Milan (ITA), Lazio (ITA), RB Leipzig (GER), Napoli (ITA), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Porto (POR), PSV Eindhoven (NED).

[18 December 2023 11:02 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

Here we go then.

You can watch the draw for free on Uefa’s website or on TNT Sports 1 if you have a subscription. The representatives for all 16 clubs are waiting in Nyon.

A quick video is played recap how each of them reached the knockout rounds.

[18 December 2023 11:00 · Mike Jones]

Champions League last-16 draw

Almost time for the draw.

[18 December 2023 10:55 · Mike Jones]

Arsenal break Brighton spell to set up early Premier League title showdown

Onto Liverpool. If Arsenal returning to the top of the Premier League table felt like a statement before Jurgen Klopp’s side were held by Manchester United in the final fixture of the weekend, it also sends a message ahead of what is shaping up to be one of the defining clashes of the campaign on the Saturday before Christmas. As Manchester City jet off to the Club World Cup amid their worst run of form in years under Pep Guardiola, it leaves a clear top two in the Premier League table: they meet at Anfield next weekend.

After defeat at Aston Villa, who may feel they should also be in the conversation after their late win at Brentford, returning to winning ways was the objective here for Mikel Arteta’s side. They managed to do so against a Brighton team whose struggles in the Premier League continued after hitting further heights in Europe in midweek. Arsenal had almost all the chances and almost all the shots against Roberto De Zerbi’s visitors and for the first time in 33 top-flight matches, Brighton failed to score.

[18 December 2023 10:50 · Mike Jones]

Arsenal‘s ‘positive' Champions League campaign

Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal side have shown enough in the group stage to prove they can compete back in the Champions League.

“Overall, I think, very positive,” he said in his press conference when asked how Arsenal’s return to the Champions League had gone.

“Having not been in the competition for six or seven years and having a team that hasn’t got that much experience, I think we’ve competed really well.

“I really liked the approach of the team in every single game, the way we’ve tried to play. We had some big results and big experiences, like the one we had in Seville or Lens, or even today looking at how the team can act and how fair it is to give certain players that exposure when you make so many changes.

“Overall finishing first with a game to play we have to be really happy. Now we have to now close that chapter until February and make sure that when that chapter opens up again that we’re in the best place to compete against another top side.”

[18 December 2023 10:45 · Mike Jones]

Man City faced with frustrating form irony just as they look to win crown of world’s best team

Manchester City have often been described as the best team in the world. The penultimate step to officially claiming that title falls on the 25th anniversary of a historic low. On 19 December 1998, City lost 2-1 to York: their fifth consecutive league game without a win left them 12th in the old Division 2, rendering them the 56th best team in England. On 19 December 2023, they face Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-final of the Club World Cup. Win then and only Fluminense or Al Ahly stand in their way in Friday’s final.

“Years ago we could not imagine to be there and we are there,” said Pep Guardiola. “I’m very pleased and excited to go there to try and win it.” It has been a remarkable rise, albeit one facilitated by about £2bn of investment from Sheikh Mansour and one clouded by 115 Premier League charges. But now, a quarter of a century after City were 15 points behind Walsall, City have one of the greatest managers in history and a treble only previously achieved by Manchester United in a season when their neighbours were a third-tier club.

Now they arrived in Saudi Arabia as favourites to retain both the Premier League and the Champions League. And yet, for a club on the brink of adding a fifth trophy of 2023 and an achievement that would symbolise a time of dominance, at something of a low.