Former Republic of Ireland midfielder Keith Treacy believes Manchester City will be "licking their lips" after the Champions League last-16 draw pitted a host of other leading contenders together.
While Pep Guardiola's side will take on RB Leipzig over two legs after the competition resumes in February, Liverpool face a repeat of last season's final against reigning champions Real Madrid, while two other big hitters in the shape of Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain go head-to-head.
Enticing last-16 fixtures are undoubtedly on the cards, with live matches on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player throughout the knockout stage, but the draw also plays into City's hands in their bid to finally land the trophy according to Treacy, who was speaking on the RTÉ Soccer Podcast.
"There are some cracking games in there. The Bayern-PSG (tie) is obviously a huge one I'm really looking forward to and obviously one of the big teams will go. They can't both go through so either Bayern or PSG are going to fall at the first hurdle," said the former Burnley and Blackburn player.
"Liverpool and Real Madrid, one of them will go out as well. So Manchester City must be licking their lips.
"It seems to be every year, we think it's weighing in their favour. You would expect them to get past RB Leipzig pretty easily."
Real Madrid got the better of Liverpool in the Paris final in May and the Reds have endured a mixed Premier League campaign to date, as well as suffering a heavy defeat to Napoli at the start of the Champions League group stage.
However, it is unclear what form Jurgen Klopp's side will be in by the time they face Real in the first leg in three months' time.
"It's a cracking game and I wouldn't be surprised if Liverpool went and won the first leg in Anfield and then they go to the Bernabeu against (Karim) Benzema and (Luka) Modric," said Treacy.
"The two of them just seem to be evergreen and just seem to be getting better and better with age, still absolutely fantastic.
"They have lots and lots of threats. Liverpool will be delighted that the tie is not being played until February because they still have a lot of issues.
"I know they had a great win against Spurs but there are still an awful lot of issues and what Real Madrid have is they're a very stubborn team to break down and they can hit you with pace on the counter-attack and they only need one chance and they can easily win a game 1-0 or if they need to, we've seen they can throw the kitchen sink at teams and teams tend to buckle as well.
"So it's a great game but what's coming out of this is Manchester City will be licking their lips because (two of) Bayern, Liverpool or PSG will be going missing."
Listen to the RTÉ Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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