Chelsea drawn against familiar foes Atletico Madrid in Champions League Round of 16

The draw for the knockout round of the Champions League was conducted at UEFA headquarters earlier today, with Chelsea getting drawn against familiar foes Atletico Madrid.

The first leg will take place in Madrid, on February 23, with the second leg to follow at the Bridge of March 17.

Chelsea, as group winners, were in the seeded pot alongside Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool, Manchester City, Juventus, PSG, and Real Madrid. Atletico finished runners-up in Group A to Bayern, and that put them in the unseeded pot alongside Barcelona, Sevilla (whom we couldn’t get drawn against since we were in the same group), Leipzig, Gladbach, Lazio, Atalanta, and FC Porto.

This will be our fourth set of Champions League encounters against Atleti, and the 8th and 9th meetings overall, including the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, in which Radamel Falcao ran riot and we lost 4-1.

We’ve also met in the group stages of the 2009-10 and 2017-18 Champions Leagues (2 draws and 2 wins for Chelsea), and most famously in the semifinals of the 2013-14 edition, when Diego Costa and an on-loan Thibaut Courtois inspired Diego Simeone’s men to a 3-1 second leg win at the Stamford Bridge to deny us a place in the final against Real Madrid. Cesar Azpilicueta is the only player still with us from that night — Costa’s back with Atleti as well (Alvaro Morata’s out on loan at Juventus).

The draw in full for the Champions League Round of 16 is as follows, lower seeds home first:

Gladbach vs. Manchester City
Lazio vs. Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid vs. CHELSEA
RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool
FC Porto vs. Juventus
Barcelona vs. PSG
Sevilla vs. BVB
Atalanta vs. Real Madrid