Chelsea drawn against unfamiliar foes Borussia Dortmund in Champions League Round of 16

The draw for the Round of 16 of Champions League 2022-23 has been completed and Chelsea FC will be up against Bundesliga outfit Borussia Dortmund for the first time in the competition's history come February. The first leg will take place at Signal Iduna Park in Germany, with the second leg to follow at the Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea, as group winners, were in the seeded pot alongside other group winners such as Napoli, FC Porto, Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Benfica. Chelsea list of potential draws included teams such as: Inter Milan, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Club Brugge.

Dortmund will be difficult challenge, especially considering our current form, but this is definitely not the worst draw. While Club Brugge were probably the easiest that we could have gotten, PSG would have been the toughest.

There is plenty of narrative surrounding this draw since it means that Chelsea will face Jude Bellingham, after plenty of links surrounding the youngster’s transfer to Chelsea. A good time as any to see the talent in person. (We do have a good record of buying players who score against us.) There’s also the return of Christian Pulisic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to their old club. However, considering the latter’s performance against Arsenal yesterday, maybe we shouldn’t focus on it.

The overall draw for the Champions League Round of 16 is as follows, with lower seeds playing first leg at home:

RB Leipzig vs Manchester City
Club Brugge vs Benfica
Liverpool vs Real Madrid
AC Milan vs Tottenham
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Napoli
Borussia Dortmund vs CHELSEA
Inter vs FC Porto
Bayern vs PSG

Let’s go!