Christian Pulisic, Julian Green learn Champions League Round of 16 opponents

Monday morning the draw for the UEFA Champions League group stage took place. The final two Americans left in the competition are Christian Pulisic and Julian Green. While Pulisic obviously plays a huge part for Dortmund in their run to the knockout stages, Green is currently injured and hasn’t featured much at all this season.

Nevertheless, there’s always a chance Green could find a way to make an impact when Bayern Munich take on Arsenal in the Round of 16 as they’ve drawn the perennial Premier League contenders once again. The Bundesliga champions knocked Arsenal out of the competion in 2013 and 2014 and were matched up with them in the group stage last season where the two split their meetings.

Dortmund will go up against SL Benfica of the Portuguese league. Much like he did in the group stage, Pulisic will likely feature heavily as Thomas Tuchel balances his side’s playing time between European and Domestic play. Dortmund pulled off a come from behind draw against Real Madrid to win their group. If they can continue performing at that high level, there’s no reason they couldn’t make a push for the final.

It should be a very exciting time to see a USMNT player featuring in the knockout stages of the Champions League and possibly make a deep run. The Round of 16 gets underway on Valentine’s Day 2017.