Chelsea to play Barcelona in Uefa Champions League last 16

1/11
Vaishali Bhardwaj11 December 2017

Chelsea will face Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Antonio Conte’s side went into the draw knowing that, having finished second in Group C, would draw one of Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona or Besiktas.

And Chelsea's punishment for failing to beat Atletico Madrid in their final group game is a last-16 tie against Lionel Messi and Barca, who last won the competition in 2015.

Reacting to the draw, Barcelona's director of institutional relations, Guillermo Amor, told BT Sport: "We knew there was a high chance we could get Chelsea and so it was, and it's welcome. If you want to win the thing, you have to beat everyone.

"It's going to be a great knockout tie. We'll go into it with optimism, confidence and a huge desire to get through."

The first legs of the Round of 16 will begin in February, week commencing Monday 12th, with the final match day on Wednesday February 21.

The second legs will then take place at fortnight after, with the match day on Wednesday March 14.

The draw for the quarter-finals will then be held on Friday March 16th.

How Chelsea reached the last 16

Chelsea opened up their Champions League campaign, following a one-season absence from the competition, with a 6-0 thrashing of Azerbaijani side Qarabag at Stamford Bridge in September.

The Blues then came from behind to secure a last-gasp 2-1 victory against Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital before their home and away ties against Roma saw Conte's side drop five points.

After first salvaging a 3-3 draw against the Italian side at home, Chelsea were then beaten 3-0 in Rome, which left the Blues needing a result against Qarabag in Baku to keep their hopes of progressing alive.

That they did with a 4-0 victory in Azerbaijan which sent Chelsea into the final round of group stage games in early December as Group C leaders.

But a 1-1 draw against Atletico at Stamford Bridge, coupled with Roma's narrow 1-0 win over Qarabag, meant Chelsea finished as group runners-up.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in