Manchester City have been reunited with record winners Real Madrid, while top seeds Arsenal will play Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League round of 16. The draw, which took place at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon on Friday morning, saw Liverpool pitted against Galatasaray, with Chelsea to face holders Paris Saint-Germain. Tottenham will play Atletico Madrid and Newcastle have been drawn to play Barcelona.
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Lazar Samardzic slotted home a stoppage-time penalty to complete a dramatic 4-1 victory for Atalanta against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, sending the Italian side into the Champions League’s last 16 with a comeback 4-3 aggregate triumph. Dortmund’s Ramy Bensebaini was sent off after his studs caught the head of Atalanta’s Nikola Krstovic in the penalty area and Samardzic converted the spot kick in the 98th minute to send the Italians through. Atalanta will now face either Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the round of 16,
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Gianluca Prestianni will not be available for Benfica’s Champions League playoff at Real Madrid on Wednesday night after Uefa suspended him following allegations that he racially abused Vinícius Júnior during the first leg. The one‑game ban is a provisional measure as an investigation continues. Benfica have said they will appeal and regret being “deprived” of the winger, but the club admitted they did not expect to be able to prevent the 20-year-old Argentinian from missing the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu.
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Anthony Gordon scored four goals as rampant Newcastle United blew Qarabag away to take control of their last 16 Champions League play-off tie. It took Gordon just two minutes to open the scoring after the latched on to a through ball from marauding centre-back Dan Burn and finished coolly past goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski into the bottom corner. Newcastle did not let up from that moment and lead by five at the interval.
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Two sublime strikes from Joao Pedro fired Chelsea into the Champions League round of 16 as they finished sixth in the league phase table after a 3-2 win at Napoli. The Blues found themselves behind in Italy but responded well in the second half to dump Napoli out of the competition while avoiding two additional games in the knockout play-offs.
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