Who Dortmund Could Play in the Champions League Round of 16

After a well played 2-2 draw against Real Madrid, Dortmund have advanced to the Champions League Round of 16 as the winners of Group F. After taking 6 points against both Sporting and Warsaw and two ties to Real Madrid, we have finished top of the table with 14 points. BVB set the record for goals scored in a group stage round scoring 21 in total. We also were in the highest scoring group stage game ever in our 8-4 defeat of Warsaw.

Topping a table with the defending champions of Europe and still probably the best team in Europe in it is no easy feat. However there is still much work to be done to recapture the glory of 1997. Now we must play a unseeded team in the round of 16. The round of 16 games, for those that don’t know, are two game elimination playoffs with away goals as tie breakers. The pool of teams we can pick in the draw are all the teams that came in second in their group except for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Bayer Leverkusen. So the possible list of teams is:

• Paris Saint-Germain
• Benfica
• Manchester City (Hi Illkay!)
• FC Porto
• Sevilla

Obviously PSG and Man City are the two we definitely don’t want to run into. Both were placed in good groups and easily could be among the seeded teams. Sevilla is probably almost as dangerous however, as they have excelled in Europe the past three years taking home three straight Europa League titles. Porto were handled pretty easily by us when we played them in Europa League last year and they are probably the best case scenario. Their eternal rivals Benfica are about the same level as they are and probably would be about the same challenge as Porto.

The draw will be on Monday at 6 AM EST. We’ll try to have almost immediate coverage of the draw as results come in.