Worst nightmare Champions League paths for Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs as routes to final clearer

The full Champions League knockout draw has been completed with Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham finding out their potential paths to the final

Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham will all be hoping for an easy route to the Champions League final having now discovered their respective last-16 opponents. The Gunners, who won the league stage, have been drawn to face Bayer Leverkusen while Chelsea face Paris Saint-Germain and Spurs take on Atletico Madrid.

The other remaining ties includes Liverpool against Galatasaray, Manchester City again facing Real Madrid, a league stage rematch between Newcastle United and Barcelona, Bayern Munich taking on Atalanta while one of Sporting CP or Bodo-Glimt will be in the quarter-finals.

The team that wins the latter tie will face Arsenal assuming they get beyond Leverkusen with it likely Mikel Arteta would prefer the Portuguese side in order to avoid heading to the Arctic Circle. The Norwegian outfit would usually be dream opponents but having beaten City, Juventus and Atletico Madrid recently, it would a huge test.

As for Sporting, Arsenal went to Jose Alvalade Stadium in last season's competition and won 5-1, so it is likely they would not mind another trip there. Getting into the semi-finals would see Arsenal face Newcastle United, Barcelona, Atletico or Spurs.

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The Gunners are likely to fancy their chances against fellow English opposition and would almost certainly expose Barca's high line.

Diego Simeone's side would therefore likely be the team they want to avoid for a spot in the final, especially after they beat Barcelona 4-0 just a few weeks ago.

Considering the teams on their side of the bracket, Arsenal are the clear favourites to reach the final in Budapest. Spurs are also on that side of the draw and would almost certainly be keen to avoid Newcastle having not beaten them once from three attempts already this season.

The Lilywhites have shown themselves to be better than teams across Europe but do struggle with the physicality of teams in their own league. That would make a possible semi-final clash against bitter rivals Arsenal - over Leverkusen, Sporting and Bodo - the worst possible scenario having lost 4-1 twice in the last few months to their neighbours.

Chelsea meanwhile, are set to come up against different opponents on their potential path to the final. Getting past PSG is their first task with Galatasaray or Liverpool waiting in the quarter-finals if they advance.

Though the Blues beat Arne Slot's side at Stamford Bridge, that would be the much harder draw but certainly a winnable one. Following that, the challenge gets significantly harder on paper with Man City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Atalanta set as their possible semi-final opponents.

Having beaten Chelsea 3-1 earlier in this campaign, Bayern are likely to be the team they would want to avoid. The German champions are favourites to beat Atalanta and will therefore almost certainly set up a mouth-watering quarter-final against Pep Guardiola's side or Los Blancos.

The last-16 ties are set to be contested in mid-March, with the specific fixture dates to be announced by UEFA later on Friday.

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