Manchester City have been drawn to face none other than holders Real Madrid in a gargantuan Champions League playoff tie.
The Citizens only just made it through to the next stage thanks to a 3-1 triumph over Club Brugge on the final league phase matchday, where anything other than three points would have sent them crashing out at the first hurdle.
The Premier League champions' reward for squeezing into the top 24 is a gargantuan battle with the 15-time winners, who also fell short of a top-eight finish as they placed 11th in the 36-team standings.
Carlo Ancelotti's men concluded an underwhelming league phase campaign with a 3-0 triumph over Brest, just one point shy of an automatic place in the last 16, where Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Lille, Aston Villa, Bayer Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid are waiting.
Elsewhere in the playoffs, Scottish champions Celtic must navigate a daunting battle with Bayern Munich, while there is an all-Ligue 1 encounter between Brest and Paris Saint-Germain.
Atalanta BC - who only just missed out on the top eight - tackle Club Brugge, and there are two Eredivisie-Serie A clashes, as Feyenoord meet AC Milan while Juventus face PSV Eindhoven.
At the other end of the playoff bracket, Sporting Lisbon will square off with Borussia Dortmund, and Monaco pit their wits against Benfica for the right to advance to the final 16.
Man City will be at home for the first leg of the playoffs, which take place on February 11/12, before the return fixture at the Bernabeu on either February 18/19.
Man City, Real Madrid to renew mouthwatering European rivalry
© Imago
Cancel all plans, grab the popcorn and put your feet up - another Champions League tie for the ages awaits, one where either the 2023 or 2024 champions will be eliminated at the second hurdle.
Pep Guardiola and his opposite number Ancelotti will be renewing a European rivalry that has started to serve up more and more engrossing encounters, to the point where Man City and Real Madrid have now done battle on 12 occasions.
Remarkably, both sides have prevailed four times over the other - while four draws have also been contested - and they will be colliding in the Champions League for the fourth straight season.
Los Blancos memorably ended the Citizens' title defence last season with a penalty-shootout win at the Etihad in the quarter-finals, prior to which Man City demolished Real Madrid 5-1 over two legs in the 2022-23 semis.
However, the 15-time winners' never-say-die attitude well and truly came to the fore in the 2021-22 final four, where they pulled off an astonishing 6-5 aggregate comeback win before trumping Liverpool in the final.
After failing to win any of their first four UCL ties with Real Madrid, though, Man City have now prevailed in four of their last eight, and one thing we can certainly predict is that this battle of the behemoths will be unpredictable.
Ben Knapton
