THE draw for the UEFA Champions League (UCL) Round of 16 might have given us the best ever set of fixtures for this stage. All the teams are from Europe’s top five leagues and each is a blockbuster in its own way.

But this means there are no easy rides to the quarterfinals for any English side — which is bad news for a side like Manchester City, which is notorious for earning favorable draws in cup competitions. The team will be facing 13-time champion Real Madrid.

Both Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane may be baulking at the idea of winning this competition without Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo respectively, and the pressure is on Pep, who will be judged on the Champions League this season, with the Premier League title slipping out of reach.

Los Blancos are built for this tournament and will be tough opponents, but City remains the favorite to win the entire thing with the bookmakers, and Madrid is not at its peak right now.

Champion Liverpool, meanwhile, will face the other Madrid side and it’s probably the draw the side would have most feared.

Atleti is also great in this competition and its defensive style of play could negate Liverpool’s furious attack.

But, on the positive side for the Reds, Atleti isn’t quite at its best this year, and the second leg is at Anfield, where they could certainly come back from a first-leg deficit.

And let’s not forget: the last time Liverpool played at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, it was a good day for them!

Moving on, lots of folks are claiming Tottenham has a good draw in RB Leipzig, as perhaps only Valencia would have been a more favorable opponent.

But Leipzig — which didn’t even exist the last time Tottenham won a trophy — is top of the Bundesliga, and a free-scoring attack led by Timo Werner could easily find a way through the porous Spurs back line.

They’ll need all of Jose Mourinho’s European expertise to navigate that one.

And finally, Chelsea players have their work cut out against Bayern Munich. Manager Frank Lampard captained the side that famously stole the trophy from under their feet on home turf in 2012, but the Blues aren’t in great form right now. They’re lacking ideas up front and their defense is poorly matched against the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Leon Goretzka and Serge Gnabry.(SD-Agencies)