The Champions' League Sweet 16

With the possible exception of the NFL, no sports league grabs more attention worldwide than the UEFA Champions' League, which features the best soccer clubs in Europe. For the past few months, the Champions' League has been working through its earlier rounds, which serve the purpose of weeding out most of clubs from the little countries in Europe. Now we are down to the Sweet 16. As you will see, all four of the English clubs who started the competition are still playing. The draw for the Sweet 16 took place this morning; these matches will consist of two games. Each team will host one of the two games, and the team that scores the most total goals in both games will win the match. If the match ends in a tie, the team that scored the most goals on the road will be the winner. If the match is tied and both teams have the same number of away goals, then the match will be decided by penalty kicks. The lower-seeded team hosts the first game, and the higher-seeded team hosts the second game. All the games will be played in February and March.

Here are the pairings, with the lower-seeded team listed first. Spurs and Arsenal were both stuck with extremely difficult draws -- I will be very surprised if either of them gets through. On the other hand, I think Man U and Chelsea will make it:

Roma (ITA) v. Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
AC Milan (ITA) v. Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)
Valencia (ESP) v. Schalke (GER)
Internazionale (ITA) v. Bayern Munich (GER)
Lyon (FRA) v. Real Madrid (ESP)
Arsenal (ENG) v. Barcelona (ESP)
Marseille (FRA) v. Manchester United (ENG)
FC Copenhagen (DEN) v. Chelsea (ENG)