Champions League R16 lineup before the draw...

Six months and six rounds later, we have our Champions League Round of 16 teams! There were no major surprises in the group stage, though it is always unpleasant to see teams knocked out with 12 points.

Here are the seeded (group winners) and unseeded (group runners-up) teams. The knockout stage draw will be Monday, December 16th in Nyon, at noon CET, so 6:00 a.m. Eastern US. The first legs will be played on February 18, 19, 25, 26 and the second legs on March 11, 12, 18, 19. The quarterfinal draw will be on March 21st.

As UEFA.com reports: "The runners-up are drawn first and play the first-leg matches at home. They cannot be paired with either the winners from their section or clubs from the same association."

Champions League R16 seeded teams: group winners
Manchester United.......... England
Real Madrid..................... Spain
Paris Saint-German........ France
Bayern Munich................. Germany (advance as winners over Man City on goal difference)
Chelsea............................ England
Borussia Dortmund......... Germany (advance as winners over Arsenal on goal difference)
Atletico Madrid................ Spain
Barcelona........................ Spain

Champions League R16 unseeded teams: group runners-up
Bayer Leverkusen............ Germany
Galatasaray...................... Turkey
Olympiakos...................... Greece (advance over Benfica on standings)
Manchester City............... England
Schalke 04....................... Germany
Arsenal............................. England (advance over Napoli on goal difference)
Zenit St. Petersburg........ Russia
Milan................................. Italy

Third-ranked teams that advance to the Europa League R32
Shakhtar Donetsk........... Ukraine
Juventus........................... Italy
Benfica............................. Portugal
Viktoria Plzen.................. Czech Republic (advance over CSKA Moscow on goal difference)
Basel................................ Switzerland
Napoli............................... Italy
Porto................................. Portugal (advance over Austria Vienna on standings)
Ajax................................... Netherlands

Germany advance all four teams again, two as first. England also advance all three, two as first. Spain advance three out of four, all three as first. Italy fall short by only advancing one, as runner-up, as both Juventus and Napoli are knocked out in the last five minutes of the last match day. This means that the current UEFA coefficients for direct group stage qualifiers have been respected and are likely to stay the same in the near future (currently: Germany 4, Spain 4, England 4, Italy 3, France 2).

Given the draw restrictions, I think that these would be the most interesting match-ups to come out of the Nyon bowls on Monday:

• Chelsea-Milan, because they have literally never met in official international competitions!
• Barcelona-Manchester City, for the same reason!
• Real Madrid-Arsenal, because they have not met since the R16 of 2005-2006.
• Manchester United-Bayer Leverkusen, because Bayer have an actual shot at advancing
• Bayern Munich-Zenit St. Petersburg, because Guardiola used to be Spalletti's player at Roma

I can't wait to find out.