I totally meant to write this last week.
With the group stages over, we have our pool of teams who've advanced to the knockout stages of the Champions League, where things start to get really interesting. Chelsea, of course, finished their group as leaders, which means they'll be playing a team who finished second in their own group. Here's the full list of winners and runners up:
Now, there are a couple of rules that govern who can be drawn against a certain team in the second round - they must be from a different seeding (i.e. 1 or 2), a different group, and a different country. If you go back and look at the table again, you can mouseover teams to see who they're eligible to play. Poor Arsenal are faced with Schalke 04, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Barcalona, but it probably serves them right for losing to Shaktar. Chelsea, on the other hand, have a far less threatening draw: Inter Milan, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, and AC Milan.
There's a 50% chance of drawing a Serie A team, but AC are the in-form team and thus clearly the ones to avoid. I think it would actually be pretty fun to draw Inter, as they're massively injured and are nowhere near as well organised as last year. Getting some revenge on them while they're weak would be perfect. Roma, Valencia, Lyon, and Copenhagen (in order of most difficult to easiest) would all be acceptable draws. Basically, avoid AC Milan and we're in good shape.
The draw for the Round of 16 will be held on the 17th at 11:00 AM GMT. Who would you like to see?