Los Blancos couldn’t beat Borussia Dortmund at Santiago Bernabéu (2-2), so they qualified second of the group in the Champions League. They will play the first leg of the Last 16 round at Santiago Bernabéu and the second one away.
Taking in consideration that Real Madrid cannot play with any other team in La Liga and they have to play against the leaders of the groups, Los Blancos could face Arsenal, Leicester City, Monaco, Juventus and Napoli. Atlético Madrid and Barcelona won also their groups but two teams from the same country cannot meet in the Last 16 Round.
Some people said that it was better to finish second of the group. In this position, Zidane’s side has avoided Bayern Múnich, PSG or Manchester City, who have also finished in the second position.
According to the stats, Real Madrid have more probabilities to face Arsenal (21,74%), then Leicester City (21,22%), Monaco (20,91%) Juventus (18,51%) and Napoli (17,62%).
Zidane has already said that they want to avoid Juventus. The Italian champions knocked out Real Madrid two years ago in the Champions League semifinals to earn the ticket to the Berlin final against Barcelona.
The other Italian side, Napoli, is more interesting and both teams met several years ago, when Maradona was playing in South Italy, and Real Madrid won the draw in the 1987-88 season.
Arsenal are always very unlucky in the Champions League draw and they’ve faced Bayern Munich or Barcelona in the recent years. With Real Madrid, the gunners have better memories as they were able to win at Bernabéu (0-1) with Henry scoring the winner and after the Londoners draw at home, kicking out Real Madrid of the competition in 2006. Real Madrid have never played against Premier League champions Leicester City and it would be interesting to see again Ranieri at Bernabéu.
Real Madrid have also bad memories with Monaco and Los Blancos might want ‘vendetta’. In 2003, Real Madrid were the title holders and they faced the Ligue One team. Los Blancos won 4-2 at Bernabéu, with Morientes scoring a goal for Monaco, but they were surprisingly thrashed at Louis II and kicked out of the competition. Monaco arrived to the final and lost against Porto, trained by José Mourinho.
We’ll see on Monday the draw. In the meantime, which team do you prefer?
