Beating Real Madrid and Florentino Perez would be Man City's sweetest Champions League victory

After Manchester City saw out their Champions League round-of-16 assignment with a dour goalless draw against Sporting Lisbon this week, attention can turn to who the Blues could face in the next round.

The quarter-final draw is set to take place on Friday 18th March, with some of the biggest names in Europe - minus Paris Saint-Germain of course - set to be in the pot.

The full complement of participants won't be known until the round-of-16 concludes next week, but there is one big name that has booked their place who City should hope to draw.

Real Madrid may have pulled off a sensational comeback to eliminate PSG this week, but City fans should relish facing them.

City eliminated Real Madrid at the round-of-16 stage back in 2019/20, but thanks to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was all a bit weird.

City, in the middle of a pretty disappointing season, pulled off one of their finest European away performances by winning 2-1 at the Bernabeu, second half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kevin de Bruyne handing Pep Guardiola's side a crucial away goal advantage (remember those?)

However, the start of the pandemic delayed the second leg by four-and-a-half months, and when City finally hosted Los Blancos in what should have been a showpiece fixture, they did so in front of an empty Etihad Stadium. City won that game 2-1 too, but the circumstances meant it lacked the deserved epic quality.

Under Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid are clearly in a better place than they were at this point two years ago. They will no doubt be buoyed by overcoming a 2-0 aggregate deficit to dump PSG out of the Champions League, while in LaLiga they are eight points clear at the top of the table.

Still, they are a team City should be confident of