Paris Saint-Germain coach Unai Emery has made clear that he doesn't believe the draw with Real Madrid to be the worst matchup the French club could have faced.
The free-scoring Parisian side will head to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for the first leg in February with Kylian Mbappe and Neymar likely to cause the Spanish giants problems in defence.
"I don't think it's the worst possible draw," he explained. "It's a good tie; we have the required level to play against Real Madrid.
"If you want to win the Champions League, then you have to face Real Madrid."
Los Blancos have suffered domestically his term with their lack of squad depth hindering their LaLiga efforts, as such Emery believes this his team has enough talent to overcome the defending champions.
"To beat Madrid, we will have to play with personality," he admitted. "We have a lot of talent. "This match will be the centre of the footballing world."
PSG's incredible goal-scoring form in the group stage illustrated just how serious a contender the French club are for the Champions League this term, the Spanish coach feels his team is ready for such a match with the Spanish giants.
"It's a positive draw," he intimated."The team is ready to play this match. "We're going to work on things in order to be perfect when the match arrives."
Such sentiments were echoed by Thomas Meunier on social media shortly after the draw, the Belgian defender made clear that such difficult matches are all part and parcel of the latter stages of the tournament.
"Why do we have this bad luck? Is it possible to have optimism?" his tweet read.
"This isn't the last 128 of the French cup; we have to come through this if we want to reach our objective."