I predict
City vs Madrid
Milan vs Juventus
Dortmund vs Sporting
Paris vs Monaco
It's obvious one of big club will be eliminated from UCL soon. We have three big clubs played at the play-off stage, and potentially facing each other. It's gonna be a very interesting game to see City vs Real Madrid.
What's your prediction guys?
Unexpectedly, top pairs before the 1/8 finals. If the pairs were not determined by the teams' positions in the tournament table, I would think that City once again somehow influenced the draw - they always get the easiest opponents from season to season (as long as it is possible).
I don't even know what to think about the Real - Bayern pair, both teams are far from optimal form, so any little thing can affect the final result. Real will be a slight favorite, but I'm not at all sure of their victory.
I am not sure if you got this wrong, but Manchester City will guaranteed play against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. How is that evoking the feeling that Manchester City would manipulate anything? If that was the case, I doubt they would have chosen these two teams to be their opponents...
It is rather that either Bayern or Real Madrid will get away with a black eye if they play against Celtic. Manchester City is screwed no matter what during the playoffs. It means one top team will be out when the playoffs are over. For City this is the hardest possible draw out of all the playoff teams there are. There is no harder draw than this. Doesn't seem like manipulation to me even if they were able to.