UEFA’s fairly rigid pots and coefficients system means familiar opponents can come up time and again in the Champions League.
On an unrelated note, hearty congratulations to Shakhtar Donetsk for making it through the play-offs this year.
Anyway, if the presence of the same old foes can sometimes become wearying, it also makes for new rivalries and developing storylines.
Atletico Madrid, Inter and Lille winning their respective domestic titles last season is a major factor in pot two for Thursday’s draw looking particularly stacked.
Here we look at some of the European heavyweights a top-seeded. Manchester City might have to tangle with once again.
Don’t worry, Lyon haven’t made it this year.
Barcelona
For a time in the middle of the last decade, Barcelona were synonymous with City’s failure to take the next step in Europe. In consecutive seasons, they dumped Manuel Pellegrini’s Blues out in the last-16, losing 4-1 and 3-1 on aggregate in ties that were about as close as those scorelines suggest.
Pep Guardiola’s arrival at City in 2016 became the most notable of several links between the clubs, although the story remained the same in that year’s group stage as Claudio Bravo was sent off at Camp Nou and Barca ran out 4-0 winners.
The return game saw the most impressive performance of the early Guardiola-era as the hosts recovered from going behind to a Lionel Messi goal and swept to a 3-1 victory thanks to Ilkay Gundogan’s brace and Kevin De Bruyne free-kick.
Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez are all gone now, of course, but drawing Barca would still have plenty of its old allure.
Real Madrid
City turned in arguably their finest away performance in this competition when they came from a goal down to beat Madrid 2-1 and silenced the Santiago Bernabeu in February 2020.
Gabriel Jesus cancelled out Isco’s second-half strike and De Bruyne scored the winner from the penalty spot. Jesus also netted when City won the home leg in the last-16 by the same scoreline but, of course, by then everything had changed.
There was a contrastingly packed Etihad for the 2016 semi-final against Madrid, but a toothless showing from City was repeated in the Spanish capital as they lost 1-0 on aggregate.
Paris Saint-Germain
It probably wouldn’t take too much to get this game simmering after PSG had a player sent off in each leg of last season’s semis when City ran out dominant 4-1 winners overall. Throw Messi into the mix (and a certain old rival on the other side? Who knows?) and you have all the ingredients for a classic.
The only prior Champions League meeting between City and PSG came in the 2016 quarter-finals when the sides shared an entertaining 2-2 draw in Paris before De Bruyne settled matters with the solitary goal on an electric night in Manchester.
Borussia Dortmund
Roberto Mancini’s City somehow escaped with a 1-1 draw during a 2012 group-stage meeting with Dortmund - Mario Balotelli cancelling out a goal from the brilliant Marco Reus on a night when only a Joe Hart masterclass prevented a heavy defeat.
Dortmund won 1-0 at Signal Iduna Park to conclude a round-robin stage where City failed to win a single match, also losing away and drawing at home to Madrid and Ajax.
Last season’s quarter-finals carry far happier memories for the Blues, who beat Dortmund 2-1 in both legs. However, once again, a packed home crowd would potentially make BVB a very different proposition, before we consider the prospect of Erling Haaland being keen to make amends for two fruitless outings versus his father’s old club.
Juventus
City have only been drawn to face the Italian giants once in the Champions League, losing in Turin after seeing a Vincent Kompany header overturned by Alvaro Morata and Mario Mandzukic in a 2-1 group stage defeat at the Etihad Stadium in 2015.
Developments this week mean the intrigue this time around would hinge upon exactly which shirt Cristiano Ronaldo is wearing.
Sevilla
In the same 2015-16 season they took on Juve, City faced Europa Leauge specialists Sevilla and were indebted to a last-gasp De Bruyne goal at the Etihad Stadium that snatched a 2-1 win.
Despite an eventual run to the Champions League semi-finals, Pellegrini’s final campaign in charge was often underwhelming. However, City were magnificent as they stormed to a 3-1 win at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Wilfred Bony scored and was superb and, yes, that really did happen.
Who would you like Manchester City to draw in the Champions League? Follow our new City Fan Brands Writer Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
