Arsenal handed favorable Champions League path after drawing Bayer Leverkusen

London – Arsenal’s dreams of a first Champions League crown in the 2025-26 season received a significant boost on Friday morning when the round-of-16 draw paired the Premier League leaders with Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen and, crucially, placed them on the softer side of the knockout bracket.

Having finished atop the 36-team league phase, Mikel Arteta’s side entered the draw seeded and emerged with what many analysts are already calling the most navigable route to the final. A two-legged tie against Leverkusen, who squeaked through as one of the lower-seeded survivors, represents a dramatically lighter assignment than the alternative: a potential minefield containing Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea or Liverpool—all of whom were pooled on the opposite half of the bracket.

Should Arsenal dispose of the Bundesliga outfit, they would meet the winner of Sporting CP and Norway’s Bodø/Glimt for a place in the last four. That quarter-final prospect is, on paper, markedly less daunting than the heavyweight collisions that have defined the Gunners’ recent knockout campaigns.

The geographical split also works in Arsenal’s favor. While six English clubs reached at least the knockouts, guaranteeing domestic collisions somewhere along the road, Arsenal dodged City, Liverpool and Chelsea until a possible final. Fellow Premier League sides Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur reside on their side of the draw, but the north London club will back themselves to overcome those familiar foes over two legs.

Looking further ahead, Barcelona—last season’s semi-finalists—loom as the most likely obstacle in a potential semi-final, although Atlético Madrid, humbled 4-0 by Arsenal in the league phase, could yet force a rematch if they continue their upward trajectory.

“The draw has fallen about as well as we could have hoped,” one club source admitted shortly after the ceremony. “There are no easy games at this stage, but we’ve avoided the giants for now and kept our destiny in our own hands.”

Supporters greeted the outcome with visible relief on social media, contrasting the scenario with recent seasons that paired the club with Europe’s elite before the quarter-final stage. The sense of opportunity is palpable: progression beyond Leverkusen would leave Arsenal three ties from silverware, and the path appears clearer than at any point in the last decade.

The round of 16 kicks off on Tuesday, 10 March, with the return leg the following week. Tickets are expected to sell out within minutes as Emirates regulars anticipate a deep run that, on this trajectory, could culminate in a first Champions League final appearance since 2006.