UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Draw / Monday Open Thread

Bring out your popcorn; it's another super-duper exciting draw! And we all love draws, don't we? I mean, what could be more entertaining than sports adminstrators and ex-players looking uncomfortably shiny under the spotlight as their greasy fingers slip on the smooth surface and they end up making fools of themselves while trying to crack open those silly lottery balls. I'm assuming that's still how they do these things nowadays; I haven't cared to watch one in some time. But here's an open thread for you discuss all the sweaty excitement, should you feel inclined.

There may be some local TV options to watch this in all the HDTV widescreen glory one could possibly handle, but your easiest bet is just to click over to UEFA.com and watch their online stream. It should go live a few minutes before the scheduled 11:00 GMT (6am EST) ball-off time.

Since Chelsea finished first, we can only be drawn against second placed, non-English teams from the other groups. This narrows our options down to a rather manageable selection of Bayer Leverkusen (Schürrle, Ballack connection), Galatasaray (DROGBAAAAAA!), Olympiacos (whom we faced in the Round of 16 in 2008 on our way to the final), AC Milan (the sole remaining Italian representative; plus we could kidnap El Shaarawy), and Zenit St. Petersburg (let the Witsel links begin anew!). As you can see, there are narratives aplenty regardless of whom we end up drawing. My personal preference is for Galatasaray just to see Didier back at the Bridge.

As the higher seed, we'll get the first leg as the away tie (18/19 or 25/26 of February) and the second leg and any potential extra time as the home tie (11/12 or 18/19 of March).

Discuss.