Spain rebounded from a poor season in Europe last year, where only Real Madrid made it through the Champions League group stages by seeing more teams than any other country through to the knockout round. Four out of five teams made it into the draw, all of which topped their group, while Sevilla crashed out in fourth place behind Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven and RC Lens.
The draw will take place in Nyon on Monday at 12:00 CEST, with a seven different opponents available to each side – only the teams that came from the same group will be avoided. This means that Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will draw one of Paris Saint-Germain, Inter, Napoli, Lazio, RB Leipzig, PSV or Copenhagen in the next round.
All of the possible opponents for Spain's four remaining #UCL representatives.
Four out of five La Liga sides qualified for the knockout stages, all topping their group in the process.
Graphic from @mundodeportivo. pic.twitter.com/5rEDKOTszY
— Football España (@footballespana_) December 14, 2023
While Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and La Real will avoid Lazio, Napoli and Inter respectively, Barcelona have a 43% chance of drawing an Italian side. Interestingly there will be no La Liga-Premier League battles until the quarter-finals if there are to be any.
Luis Enrique’s PSG stand out as perhaps the most well-resourced opponent, while Copenhagen have the lowest budget of any potential opponent. This will be the last time that the knockout stages begin as such, with the format switching to a 36-team league instead of a group stage next year.
