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Today we get to find out which ping pong ball Arsenal gets to play in the Round of 16 of the Champions League. Oh wait, no. They’re not playing a ping pong ball, they’re playing a team that is inside a ping pong ball. At first glance, that seems a very unfair matchup - I mean, if you can fit 11 starters and five subs in there, they’re a TINY team, right? I don’t know why Arsenal struggle so much with this every year.
Anyway. The draw is this morning, and coverage of said draw starts at the ungodly hour of 6AM ET, or 3AM out here on the west coast. Needless to say, I won’t be covering it live; but, for those of you who are either up already or in a time zone where the draw isn’t stupidly early, here’s a place where you can talk about the whole thing.
As a reminder, Arsenal cannot face another English team or PSG in this round, so their possible opponents are:
Benfica
Bayern Munich
Bayer Leverkusen
Real Madrid
FC Porto
Sevilla
And here, again, are the odds, calculated in a way I don’t really understand, of Arsenal drawing any of those teams:
¿Con quien jugará tu equipo los octavos de final de la Champions? Aquí tienes TODOS los porcentajes de TODOS los posibles emparejamientos. pic.twitter.com/ptzAeL5bVV
— MisterChip (Alexis) (@2010MisterChip) December 7, 2016
So, sit back, pop your favorite morning beverage, and bask in the glow of Arsenal drawing Bayern Munich.
HOW TO WATCH:
The draw will be streamed on uefa.com and is also available on Fox Sports Go in the US. But uefa.com has it for free, and FSG is a pay service, so. Coverage starts, as mentioned, at 3AM PT/6AM ET.