Izuchukwu OkosiSuper Eagles striker Victor Osimhen will face the Barcelona defence in the round of 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League following Monday’s draw, reports Prime Business Africa.
Napoli finished second in the group stage and have been handed a seemingly difficult task of stopping the La Liga champions in the next round of the competition.
Another Nigeria international is expected to be in action for his club in the round of 16 stage as left back Zaidu Sanusi will likely confront Anglo-Nigerian and Arsenal superstar Bukayo Saka when Porto play Arsenal as both sides were paired for the first stages of the knockout rounds.
England international, Saka, played a huge role in the Gunners’ group stage qualification campaign.
Porto were the winners of the competition in 2003 when former Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real, Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was at the helms.
Arsenal will be hoping to extend their home wins against Porto when they meet in London and also break the hoodoo of having not won at the Estadio do Dragao.
Paris Saint-Germain, one of the top clubs tipped for a possible Champions League triumph inspired by Kylian Mbappe will face Real Sociedad while German Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich have been handed a tricky part to the quarterfinals with a pair of fixtures against Lazio.
The Germans though will greatly rely on the goal scoring exploits of England captain Harry Kane who has scored 20 league goals in 14 appearances so far this season.
Current holders of the title, Manchester City, got what seemed like the luck of the draw as they will face Danish outfit and Superliga champions, FC Copenhagen.
Copenhagen proved to be difficult opponents for City’s crosstown rivals, Manchester United in arguably their worst season in the competition during the group games.
Real Madrid, the competition’s most successful side with 14 honours will make a trip to Germany for a date with RB Leipzig and welcome the Bundesliga outfit to the Bernabeu in the reverse fixture early 2024.
Dutch side PSV Eindhoven have been paired with Borussia Dortmund while 2023 finalists, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid will face off in perhaps the star fixtures among the lot.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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