Madrid-Man City, PSG-Chelsea rematches headline Champions League last-16 with newcomer Bodø/Glimt

The Champions League round of 16 opens Tuesday with a slate that reads like a greatest-hits album: familiar heavyweights colliding, long-absent clubs returning to the spotlight, and the competition’s most romantic newcomer plotting an Arctic ambush.

Real Madrid versus Manchester City is the tie that refuses to fade. Wednesday’s first leg at the Bernabéu will be their fifth straight knockout meeting and the second time they have faced each other this season alone. City’s 2-1 group-stage victory in December—settled by Erling Haaland’s penalty—has only sharpened the edge for a fixture that has produced three eventual champions in the past four years. Kylian Mbappé, still nursing a strained left knee, remains a question mark for Madrid, leaving the stage potentially clear once again for Haaland to stamp his authority on the tie.

Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea rekindle a rivalry that last crackled a decade ago in this same round. The 2016 vintage featured Zlatan Ibrahimović and coaches Laurent Blanc and Guus Hiddink; the 2025 edition pits PSG against a Chelsea side that shocked the French champion 3-0 in the Club World Cup final eight months ago. Cole Palmer inspired that upset under Enzo Maresca; Liam Rosenior, who began the season across the Channel managing Strasbourg, now steers the Blues into Parc des Princes hoping lightning strikes twice.

Elsewhere, history is being rewritten in real time. Galatasaray’s clash with Liverpool revives a September surprise when the Turkish giants toppled Jürgen Klopp’s side in Istanbul; the return leg will be Gala’s first Champions League match in March for 12 years. Newcastle, beaten by Barcelona back in September, steps onto the same stage for the first time in 23. Atalanta welcomes Bayern Munich having waited five years to re-enter the round of 16, while Tottenham—interim boss Igor Tudor the club’s 12th different hire since Diego Simeone took over at Atlético—travels to the Metropolitano, scene of their 2019 final heartbreak against Liverpool.

Yet the story that will warm viewers from every corner of Europe is unfolding 100 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle. Bodø/Glimt, 23rd in the final 36-team table, ended Norway’s 29-year absence from the knockout phase and now welcomes Sporting Lisbon on its artificial turf. Manchester City and Inter Milan have both been humbled 3-1 here in recent months; the forecast calls for 3°C at kick-off, a temperature the Portuguese visitors have rarely experienced. For a fishing town of 50,000, the Champions League has become a winter carnival.

With only six days separating first and second legs for Madrid-City, the drama will accelerate at break-neck speed. Mbappé and Haaland may yet meet again, while PSG and Chelsea resume a quarrel a decade in the making. Between the marquee rematches and the fairytale from Bodø, the round of 16 promises both blockbuster theatre and fresh folklore.