Reigning champions Real Madrid will face 2023 winners Manchester City in the plum tie of the playoff round of this season’s Champions League, following Friday’s draw. It is the fourth year running in which the sides have been drawn against each other in a knockout tie, with Real emerging victorious in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals last season.

City, who scraped through after finishing 22nd in the league phase in this first season of the new format for Europe’s elite club competition, knew they faced a tough draw with Bayern Munich their other possible opponents. Pep Guardiola’s team will be at home in the first leg before going to Spain for the return. “It feels like a derby already,” Guardiola said at a press conference on Friday.