The draw for the Champions League Round of 16 was held today, Friday, resulting in strong matchups, most notably Real Madrid against Manchester City, Newcastle against Barcelona, and Paris Saint-Germain against Chelsea. The path that teams will have to take to reach the grand final in Budapest was also determined.

As usual at this stage of the season, Opta conducted its predictions using a supercomputer, revealing Arsenal, led by Mikel Arteta, as the favorites to win the championship with a probability of 27.40%, which is nearly double the chances of the other competitors. Arsenal tops the Premier League and is the leader of its Champions League group this season.

Bayern Munich came in second with a 14.28% chance, followed by Liverpool and Manchester City with 12.83% and 10.79%, respectively. Barcelona ranks fifth among European teams with a 7.72% chance, while Newcastle is in seventh place with a 4.66% chance.

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid each received lower odds, with 2.78% and 2% respectively. Other teams like Sporting Lisbon, Tottenham, and Paris Saint-Germain have odds ranging between 1.22% and 4.64%, while Galatasaray is the least likely with a 0.17% chance.

These predictions highlight Arsenal's superiority on their way to winning the Champions League, despite having never won the trophy in their history. All other teams remain candidates to surprise the predictions, as has happened on previous occasions, adding more excitement to the tournament's competition this season.