So Leicester City’s first-ever Champions League quarter-final will be at Atletico Madrid.
They were drawn out of the hat by twice European Cup winner Ian Rush in Nyon.
Holders Real Madrid will play Bayern Munich, Barcelona are against Italian champions Juventus while Dortmund play Manchester City’s conquerors Monaco.
The first legs will be played 11/12 April then the second legs are 18/19 April.
FACT: Atlético and Leicester have met in two previous ties – the Spanish side winning both, in the 1961/62 European Cup Winners’ Cup first round (1-1 away, 2-0 home) and the 1997/98 UEFA Cup first round (2-1 home, 2-1 away).
HOW THE MATCHES WERE DRAWN
Tie 1
Atletico Madrid v Leicester
Tie 2
Dortmund v Monaco
Tie 3
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
Tie 4
Juventus v Barcelona
FACT: The 2015 final was only the seventh competitive meeting between Barcelona and Juventus. Barcelona have won three, Juve two with two draws. The Spanish side have scored ten goals, conceding eight.
FACT: Juventus and Barcelona met in the 2015 UEFA Champions League final in Berlin, the Spanish side running out 3-1 winners thanks to goals from Ivan Rakitić (4), Luis Suárez (68) and Neymar (90+7); Álvaro Morata (55) had brought Juventus level at 1-1.
11.10: The road to Cardiff continues. The eight balls are dropped into the bowl…
11.07: The star guest is introduced, a winner of the European Cup for Liverpool in 1981 and 1984 – it’s Ian Rush. The prolific Anfield legend is still the top-scoring Wales star of all time – and also played a season for Juventus. He also heralds Leicester and their ‘team spirit’. Rushie will do the draw.
11.05: Now Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA deputy secretary picks up the baton. He praises the ‘beautiful’ Leicester team.
11.03: The draw edges ever nearer as THAT Barcelona match against PSG is shown again. There were 62 goals scored in the round of 16, most of them in that clash it seems.
11.01: Pedro Pinto, UEFA communications chief introduces proceedings and gets us all excited. Cue a film of all remaining eight teams.
11am: It’s time and the room in Nyon is filling up…The Champions League trophy is on display and the music starts to play. Cue a collage of great moments.
10.58: Trilogy time? If Real Madrid draw either of the other Spanish sides then there will be three meetings between them in under two weeks. They are scheduled to host Atlético in the Liga on 8 April and Barcelona on the 23rd.
10.50: We are now just 10 minutes away from the start of proceedings.
There are just four survivors from the quarter-final draw 12 months ago, when all four ties ended 3-2! Wolfsburg 2-3 Real Madrid, Bayern 3-2 Benfica, Barcelona 2-3 Atlético, Paris 2-3 Manchester City
10.30: The Nyon lights have been turned on – it’s time for the Champions League quarter-finals draw.
After what seemed like years of semi-meaningless group matches involving a fourth-placed Spanish team against Swiss or Bulgarian also-rans the competition finally starts to simmer.
It reached boiling point briefly when Barcelona beat PSG 6-1 to overhaul their 4-0 first leg defeat in the last 16 but that flame has been turned down now.
Now we are down to the last eight: Leicester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Monaco and Bayern Munich are all in the hat.
And the big news is, it’s now unseeded so we could have an El Clasico or Barcelona v Bayern Munich, the ‘Pep’s not here any more’ derby.
Which is ironic because Pep’s not in the tournament any more…
A host of UEFA ‘celebs’ will be conducting the draw, probably a player you once heard of but wouldn’t now recognise if you passed him in the street.
So stay tuned here to watch the draw as it happens from 11am.
