{"id":442943,"date":"2026-01-30T12:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442943\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T12:06:14","slug":"who-barcelona-could-face-in-the-2025-26-champions-league-round-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/442943\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Barcelona Could Face in the 2025\u201326 Champions League Round of 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona\u2019s early season blunders could have been costly in the 2025\u201326 Champions League league phase, avoiding an unwanted knockout playoff by beating Copenhagen on the final matchday.<\/p>\n

A loss to Monaco was Barcelona\u2019s only league phase stumble a season ago, finishing second in the standings. But defeats against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and a woeful draw vs. Club Brugge this term saw Hansi Flick\u2019s men sitting just outside the top eight with seven games played.<\/p>\n

But the 4\u20131 win against the Danes at Camp Nou was enough to climb to fifth in the standings and qualify automatically for the round of 16.<\/p>\n

For the second year in a row, Barcelona<\/a> have avoided the unwanted knockout playoffs and secured direct passage to the last 16. With no margin for error, Barcelona defeated Eintracht Frankfurt, Slavia Prague and Copenhagen in their final three games to sneak into the top eight in the final week.<\/p>\n

Here are Barcelona\u2019s potential opponents in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s Potential Champions League Round of 16 Opponents\"Achraf<\/p>\n

PSG and Newcastle are among the options. | Tnani Badreddine\/DeFodi Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

As a result of the events of Matchday 8, Barcelona will face in the round of 16 one of the teams that finished 11th, 12th, 21st or 22nd in the league phase standings. The exact identity of that opponent will be determined by the knockout playoffs.<\/p>\n

A mouthwatering clash against Pep Guardiola\u2019s Manchester City\u00a0was briefly a possibility until the English club also moved into the top eight, but\u00a0Paris Saint-Germain\u00a0would be no less seismic as the reigning European champions and long-time rivals.<\/p>\n

PSG will duke it out with fellow French giants Monaco in the playoffs. Luis Enrique\u2019s side will be the favorites but victory is far from assured. Indeed, when these two met in Ligue 1 back in November, it was Monaco who secured a 1\u20130 victory.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the fixture pairings, Newcastle United face a battle with Qaraba\u011f of Azerbaijan. That was the favorable outcome for the Magpies, who will fancy their chances of advancing to the Champions League round of 16.<\/p>\n

Barcelona will be drawn against one of the victors of those ties, with the other to be handed a date with Chelsea. There are no easy fixtures at this stage of the Champions League, but PSG are clearly the team to avoid.<\/p>\n

Winner of Paris Saint-Germain (11th) vs. Monaco (21st)Winner of Newcastle United (12th) vs. Qarabag (22nd)When Is the Champions League Round of 16?<\/p>\n

The Catalans will be extremely pleased to have avoided playing an extra two games to reach the round of 16, especially given the congested portion of the calendar they are about to enter, with La Liga and Copa del Rey action ramping up.<\/p>\n

Barcelona can focus on other competitions since the Champions League round of 16 won\u2019t start until six weeks from now. Flick\u2019s men will start their round of 16 tie with an away first leg on March 10\u201311, with the return leg at the Camp Nou taking place a week later on March 17\u201318.<\/p>\n

The round of 16 draw will take place on Feb. 27, after the knockout playoffs.<\/p>\n

READ THE LATEST BARCELONA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona\u2019s early season blunders could have been costly in the 2025\u201326 Champions League league phase, avoiding an unwanted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-442943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}