Round of 16 Draw Liveblog – Now Live!

By: Rob | December 18th, 2008

So I’m here. Live draw supposedly at 11 GMT. I say supposedly, because of course, UEFA will want to play their theme about 50 times, explain the needlessly complicated nature of the draw, introduce the legendary Bruno Conti again, and play some clips from the season’s CL so far. Chris has got all the streaming options covered thankfully. I’m excited.

Although sides that are from the same nation cannot be drawn against each other yet, and neither can sides who qualified from the same group, we can still look forward to some mouthwatering ties. Full Liveblog after the jump

- We’re underway.

Chelsea first out! Juventus.

So Chelsea V Juve. Claudio Ranieri plays his old club.

Villarreal vs Panathinaikos. Could see that one coming. Means a big big game elsewhere.

Sporting Lisbon are out. They will play Bayern Munich.

Atlético are out. They will play FC Porto.

Lyon are out now. Who will they draw? Barcelona. Sorry, Laurie and Inara.

Real Madrid are out. Nine time champions. Must be English team. Liverpool.

Arsenal Vs Roma – Should be a beautiful game.

Which leaves Inter Milan, takes on Man United. Jose takes on Sir Ferg again.

Bloody hell, thats a fantastic draw overall. Loads of games I can’t wait for.

- Bruno Conti is on stage, so its just them reading the rules and we are underway.

- Just watched all the highlights from the group stage. Barca have to be favourites, no?

- 247 teams in the group stage. No-one got maximum points.

- Michel Platini is not here, he’s watching the crappy World Club Cup. Fool. CL is where its at.

Here we go! Its starting now.

5 Mins to Go – Only 5 more minutes of the theme tune, which is a bit obnoxious over and over like this.

10 mins to go – Stremas up on the Uefa site currently playing the theme over and over. I feel a bit more awake now.

The group winners were, Roma (Ita), Panathinaikos (Gre), Barcelona (Spa), Liverpool (Eng), Manchester United (Eng), Bayern (Ger) Porto (Por) and Juventus (Ita)

The Group Runners Up were, Chelsea (Eng), Inter Milan (Ita), Sporting Lisbon (Por), Atletico Madrid (Spa), Villarreal (Spa), Lyon (Fra), Arsenal (Eng), Real Madrid (Spa).