UEFA Champions League draw: Barcelona and Real Madrid avoid each other; Bayern-Juventus the best tie

Felipe Melo vs. Mesut Ozil

Madrid’s frontline is so good that they can almost supply themselves, but if Mesut Ozil gets into gear then the Turks are finished. They can give themselves a fighting chance by shutting down the German playmaker, for which Melo is best-suited to the task. Some good, old-fashioned roughhousing could go a long way.

Borussia Dortmund and Malaga will compete for an unlikely semi-final place as the German giants battle it out with the financially-stricken Spaniards. Either team will have done remarkably well to reach the semi-final, with Dortmund not enjoying their best year and having done well to even get out of their group of death, although they will have to seriously up their game if they have any designs on winning the trophy.

Malaga, in contrast, have appeared a bit of a rabble, but thanks to the performances of one player in particular, they’ve been able to go on a remarkable run and have a fighting chance of extending it even further.

Nonetheless, in most other areas of the pitch, Barcelona outmatch their opponents and will be relying on doing what they always do - outplaying and outpassing the opposition to death. Paris Saint-Germain have a very good team, but it’s not quite at the level of Barcelona just yet - their best bet is probably going to be to do something like Milan did at the San Siro, while hoping they can make a better job of things in Spain.

Barcelona to win by one goal

Bayern to win by a goal. Juventus are going to be gritty and defensively disciplined, though it’s difficult to see them upsetting the odds and making it into the semi-final. Despite being the strongest defensive unit in Serie A, they’re still lacking in an outstanding striker, and their 3-5-2 could well struggle in a tactical matchup. Bayern’s wingers will find space in behind the Juve wing-backs, or at least push them back into a defensive five; allowing the Bavarians to control the midfield. As they’ve shown countless times this season, eventually they’ll make it pay.

• Full coverage of the UEFA Champions League draw

Los Merengues have drawn the Turkish champions Galatasaray with the home leg at the Bernabeu first, though everyone else may be feeling a little more apprehensive about their games.

Borussia Dortmund will travel to play Málaga first in a tie you’d expect the German champions to win, though with Manuel Pellegrini’s team continuing to surprise on both domestic and continental fronts this season, it could be a little trickier than it seems.

In a Champions League as wide open as any in recent memory, there are a slew of potentially tantalizing match-ups. Here is a sampling of match-ups that should make you giddy, although if you’re a fan of one of the teams involved, these draws might induce more fear that excitement.

As great as El Clasico may be, it is even better in the semifinals and it would be even better with a month break after Barcelona and Real Madrid played each other twice in one week. So put El Clasico aside, for now, and serve up Real Madrid against Paris Saint-Germain.

Every time UEFA holds a draw, I get more and more baffled that it can’t be watched on television. While their rules against using the real names of stadiums if they’re sponsored suggests that they might be about something other than being corporate shills, everything else they do suggests the opposite. That is, except for the fact that they don’t sell the rights to their draws to TV stations or put ads on their online stream.

In any event, they show the draw for free on their website, which is awesome. Starting at 7 am ET, 11 am UK and 12 pm CET (daylight savings time means the U.S. is one hour closer to Europe than normal at the moment), you can catch a live stream of the Champions League draw at UEFA.com. There, you can see UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino and his cast of whatever famous footballers he gets to join him draw balls out of bowls to determine who will meet in the Champions League quarterfinal.

Six of the biggest spending and most successful teams in recent times have qualified for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, while two of the remaining sides are not like the others. No matter who they draw, unless they miraculously draw each other, Malaga and Galatasaray will go into their quarterfinal ties as massive underdogs.

The draw to set the quarterfinal round takes place on Friday, at 7 am ET, 12 pm local time in Switzerland. CET is currently plus-five hours on Eastern Time, due to the recent daylight savings time change that did not affect Europe.