Hint of the predictable for familiar Champions League rivals

As a rule there is nothing more predictable than the Christmas TV schedules. Except the draw for the Champions League knockout round.

Munich in Turin, Barcelona at the Emirates, Chelsea in Paris… And for all that Madrid’s football paper Marca is telling its readers that Roma and Real “haven’t met as often as you might think”, nine repeats in 15 years is, like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, at least three too many.

Uefa is not wholly to blame if the same teams come through the group stage each year, but given that teams from the same country are initially kept apart, perhaps it’s time they were allowed to meet in the last 16.