UEFA Champions League Draw: Chelsea Get Napoli

Well we're not going to do this the easy way, are we? Chelsea's reward for finish first in UEFA Champions League Group E is to end up with the second place finishers from Group A: SSC Napoli. You may remember Napoli as being the team who knocked out Manchester City with a pair of magnificent performances in the group stages, or perhaps as the team which had the best chance of beating Chelsea out of the entire pool of possible candidates.

We've gone over our possible opponents before, and it's not as though Napoli have gotten any easier since then. This is actually a fascinating matchup - they have a clear edge in attack what with the Edinson Cavani-Ezequiel Lavezzi-Marek Hamsik trident that runs things up top, a hard working midfield that specialises in getting the ball to their front men really really fast, a phenomenal right back in Christian Maggio, and play with a back three that could easily shut down Chelsea's lone striker if we let them.

Don't let Napoli's domestic form fool you - they might be in fifth place in Serie A, but they're dropping points to teams that park the bus and regularly resting their starters for the Champions League. On the plus side, they won't have wanted this draw either, as Chelsea are looking like one of the top four teams left in the competition, but that won't make things any easier when Lavezzi is turning our right backs into so much mush at the San Paolo.

It's obviously not an easy draw by any stretch of the imagination (for them or us). But look on the bright side. As a reward for failing to beat RC Genk in Belgium, Bayer Leverkusen end up with Barcelona. Ouch.

Here's the full draw:

APOEL Nicosia vs. Lyon

Chelsea vs. Napoli

Arsenal vs. AC Milan

Inter Milan vs. Marseille

Barcelona vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Benfica vs. Zenit St. Petersburg

Real Madrid vs. CSKA Moscow

Bayern Munich vs. FC Basel