Monday, December 13, 2021
Update
After chaos in the first CL draw
FC Bayern now with a lucky draw against Salzburg
Lucky draw for Bayern after the chaos in the previous draw: In the round of 16 of the Champions League, the record champions will face Red Bull Salzburg from Austria. PSG now have to play against Real Madrid in the cracking game. The drawing had to be repeated at noon due to mishaps.
As the last German representative, FC Bayern Munich will meet Red Bull Salzburg in the last sixteen of the Champions League. That means luck of the draw for the German record champions, because the Austrians are in the knockout phase for the first time. The previous lot, Atlético Madrid, champions and current fourth in the Spanish league, would have been much more difficult. The draw was repeated after an initial controversial drawing in which UEFA made several mistakes. This time, therefore, all the lots drawn were checked again by an independent party in real time.
The first legs are for the 15./16. as well as the 22./23. February 2022, the second legs for the 8th / 9th as well as the 15./16. March. Kick-off is at 9 p.m. CET. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be drawn on Friday, March 18th. The final of the premier class will take place on May 28, 2022 in St. Petersburg. Normally, such a draw also means in Germany that no team can play against a club from their own association. This rule did not apply to FC Bayern this time, because Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and VfL Wolfsburg were eliminated in the preliminary round of the premier class. Julian Nagelsmann’s team couldn’t meet at Benfica Lisbon because the Portuguese came from the same group.
Manchester United with Cristiano Ronaldo, the team whose loose ball caused the mistake in the first half, must first play at Atlético Madrid. Not a much easier task than Paris Saint-Germain, which the Red Devils had previously been drawn. The super team around Messi, Neymar and Mbappé will now face Real Madrid in the absolute cracker of the round of 16. Liverpool FC with German team manager Jürgen Klopp has to play against the leaders of the Italian league, Inter Milan. For Thomas Tuchel and his Chelsea FC, everything stays the same: The second drawing also brings the Londoners OSC Lille.
No more “away goals rule”
Bayern have home rights against Salzburg as a seeded team in the second leg. However, the so-called “away goals rule” was abolished before this season. That means: all duels that are tied after 180 minutes go into overtime, regardless of how many goals the teams scored away or at home. If there is still a draw after 30 minutes, there is a penalty shoot-out.
At the draw, the German record champions avoided the heavyweights FC Liverpool with coach Jürgen Klopp, Real Madrid with ex-Bayern Munich Toni Kroos and David Alaba and Manchester City with start coach Pep Guardiola from the start as group winners. With last year’s winners FC Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germains Star Ensemble, or Inter Milan, two more big chunks had been waiting in pot.
For German football fans, the team of coach Nagelsmann is the favorite to win the Champions League title. This was the result of a survey by the FanQ voting platform on behalf of SID. Accordingly, 62.9 percent of those surveyed saw the German record champions ahead of the round of 16 draw. 16 percent of the more than 1,100 supporters surveyed rated Liverpool FC around team manager Jürgen Klopp as the strongest competitor. Robert Lewandowski jumped to first place in the ranking of the best player in the CL group stage. With 41.9 percent, the top scorer of world footballers ranks ahead of Sebastian Haller from Ajax Amsterdam (23 percent).