Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has already named the one club he fears facing most in the Champions League this season.
City survived a major scare on Wednesday night, coming from behind to beat Club Brugge 3-1 at the Etihad in their final league phase match.
Both sides secured a spot in the knockout play-off round, although 2022/23 champions City would no doubt have expected to finish in the top eight of the league phase table at the start of the competition.
Instead, they will go into Friday's play-off draw and will face either Bayern Munich or defending champions Real Madrid in the next round.
Advert
Despite their underwhelming performance in the league phase, City remain one of the favourites to win the Champions League along with Bayern, Real, Barcelona, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Liverpool topped the league phase after winning all of their matches except their final game against PSV, which ended in a 3-2 win for the Dutch side after Arne Slot rotated his team with qualification for the last 16 already secured prior to the match.
But despite topping the Premier League and Champions League tables, Liverpool aren't the side Guardiola fears most in Europe.
Instead, he revealed back in October that he is most keen to avoid former club Barcelona, who he both played for and coached. Hansi Flick's side finished second in the league phase, having won six of their games, drawing one and losing the other.
After being asked which club he wanted to avoid most, Guardiola told Italian chat show Che Tempo Che Fa: "Good question. Barcelona maybe.
"The affection I have for them destroys me. I was born in a small town nearby, it's never easy to play against them."
Speaking after the win over Brugge, Guardiola said both Real Madrid and Bayern were in a better place than City and warned his players they must improve if they are to make the last 16.
"Going to Bayern Munich or Real Madrid will be really tough," he said.
"But it's in two weeks and in two weeks we have a few players back, the new signings back, so hopefully we can do two good games.
"They are better than us right now, both of them, but I don't know what’s going to happen in the next two weeks.
"Ruben [Dias] and Nathan [Ake] are back, Jeremy [Doku], Oscar [Bobb], new signings. If everybody comes back, we can compete."
The knockout phase play-offs will be played over the course of two weeks next month, with the first legs on February 11 and 12 and second legs on February 18 and 19.
Topics: Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, Champions League, Barcelona
Rory O'Callaghan