Champions League quarter-final draw: Tottenham face Man City, Man Utd vs Barcelona and Liverpool paired with Porto

Platitudes about no easy games at this level aside, Liverpool will be pretty chuffed with that. Porto was the team with the least pedigree that everyone wanted to avoid. 

Manchester United have an extremely tough assignment against Barcelona, but will know that this is not a vintage Barca side. 

Tottenham presumably won't be too enthused about playing a Manchester City side that has won their three most recent meetings. 

The only tie not involving an English side Ajax vs Juventus offers plenty of intrigue, with Erik ten Hag's emerging side trying to upset another European superpower. 

Although they were drawn to play the second leg at home, Manchester United will actually instead be at Old Trafford for the first leg against Barcelona. This is because City are playing their second leg against Spurs at home, and Uefa rules say you can't have two sides from the same city playing home matches in the same week.  

Quarters:

• Ajax vs Juventus
• Tottenham vs Manchester City
• Liverpool vs Porto
• Barcelona vs Manchester United

Semis:

• Tottenham or Manchester City vs Ajax or Juventus
• Barcelona or Manchester United vs Liverpool or Porto

Timings:

• The quarter-final first legs will be played on 9/10 April, the second legs on 16/17 April. 
• The semi-final first legs will be played 30 April/1 May, the second legs on 7/8 May
• The final will be played on Saturday 1 June at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid

The moment we've all been waiting for, which semi-final winner would be considered - for administrative reasons - the 'home' team for the final in Madrid? The answer is:

Tottenham, Manchester City, Ajax or Juventus. 

Tottenham or Manchester City vs Ajax or Juventus

Barcelona or Manchester United vs Liverpool or Porto

• Ajax vs Juventus
• Liverpool vs Porto
• Tottenham vs Manchester City
• Barcelona vs Manchester United

The first legs will be played on 9/10 April, the second legs on 16/17 April. 

Barcelona vs Manchester United

Solskjaer heading back to the Nou Camp. 

Tottenham vs Manchester City

An all-English quarter-final. 

Liverpool vs Porto. 

A repeat of last year's last-16 tie that Liverpool won 5-0 on aggregate. 

Ajax vs Juventus. 

A repeat of the 1996 final. 

The draw is under way...

The 2010 Champions League-winning goalkeeper and QPR legend Julio Cesar. Who I've always thought looks like a Family Guy character. 

But any moment now Giorgio Marchetti, Uefa's Deputy General Secretary, will conduct the draw.

Yep, Pedro Pinto is on hand to kick things off. The camera pans to Andy Cole, who looks like he's about to fall asleep. Robbie Fowler is also there. 

Someone with an indistinguishable 'international' accent will be taking to the stage soon to talk us through proceedings. 

That following this will be the Europa League quarter-final draw. You can keep an eye on that here, as Chelsea and Arsenal find out their last-eight opponents.  

Ahead of today's draw, I ranked and rated all eight teams left according to the following - fairly arbitrary - metrics.

• Form
• Manager rating
• Pedigree
• Star player
• Belief

The results are here. 

And my colleague Jason Burt wrote yesterday on how the English clubs have reasserted their dominance in Europe. 

The rest of Europe feared this day would arrive. For the first time in more than a decade four Premier League teams have made it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the concern for everyone else is that it is the start of a new era of dominance.

Morning all, 

After a hugely exciting last-16 stage, the next step in the Champions League rodeo is an interminably dull draw undertaken in a cavernous hall in Switzerland. 

But though the process may be tedious, the matches thrown up promise to be extremely interesting. A reminder of the eight teams that have got this far:

• Ajax (NED)
• Barcelona (ESP)
• Juventus (ITA)
• Liverpool (ENG)
• Manchester City (ENG)
• Manchester United (ENG)
• Porto (POR)
• Tottenham Hotspur (ENG)

So a very strong mix of established clubs and teams that we're not used to seeing at this stage. It receives a lot of flack but the Champions League knockouts really have been so much fun this season and last. Hopefully there'll be more to come in the quarters. 

Anyway speaking of fun, a few admin points to make. This draw is completely open so anyone can play anyone - including the four English sides. In theory then we could have two all-Premier League quarter-finals. 

As well as the quarters, today's draw will also see the draw made for the semis so the eight teams remaining will know their projected paths to the final. They will even discover who will be the 'home' team for the final in Madrid. 

And finally on the housekeeping front, the two Manchester clubs can't play at home on the same week. So if they are both drawn at home in the first or second leg, Manchester United – as the team that finished lower in their domestic league last season – would have their order of home and away leg reversed. 

For those looking ahead to the final few rounds of this year's competition, these are the dates for your diary:

• 9/10 April: Quarter-finals, first leg
• 16/17 April: Quarter-finals, second leg
• 30 April/1 May: Semi-finals, first leg
• 7/8 May: Semi-finals, second leg
• Saturday 1 June: Final – Estadio Metropolitano, Madrid

City are the favourites to win the competition, followed by Barcelona and Juventus. You'd imagine those three will be hoping to avoid one another. 

The draw gets underway at 11am in Nyon.