[UPDATE]: The teams that qualified for the quarter finals of the Champions League 2015-2016 are: Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and Benfica.
It is finally here, the moment that is more feared than the round of 16 draw.
The UEFA Champions League quarter-final draw for the 2015 – 2016 season will be held on Friday, 18 March, 2016, in Nyon – Switzerland.
Since Gianni Infantino has been elected FIFA president, then Interim UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis will be the man in charge of proceedings.
The draw will start at 12:00 CET noon, and that would be 11:00 am GMT, 15:00 Dubai Time, and 13:00 Beirut Time.
The quarter-final pairings are determined by an open draw in which no teams are seeded and clubs from the same national association can be drawn against each other. The side drawn first will play the first leg at home.
With such a free draw rule, we may witness a repeat of some of this year’s group stage matches. Paris Saint-Germain to face Real Madrid again, or Atletico Madrid and Benfica meeting for the fourth time in one European season. Not far away from this déjà vu scenario, there is another one with Barcelona (if they qualified) meeting Juventus or Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid facing it off in a Madrid derby with Atletico.
Anything can happen and the draw is the one event to look out for this coming Friday.
An additional treat for Friday will be the UEFA Europa League quarter-final draw, one hour post the Champions League’s. (Draw for Europa League quarter finals starts at 13:00 CET , and that would be 12:00 noon GMT, 16:00 Dubai Time, and 14:00 Beirut Time)
p.s. The Quarter-Finals matches of the Champions League will be played on 5/6 and 12/13 April, 2016.
