Manchester City was matched against Barcelona on Monday in the draw for the knockout round of the UEFA Champions League, with the first leg in England in February and the return game in Spain in March.
"It should be a beautiful game," said Manuel Pellegrini, the Chilean coach who was appointed to City last summer. Pellegrini's name was linked a year ago with Barcelona because that word - beautiful - is very close to his philosophy.
For Barcelona, the ball must flow. For Pellegrini, the ball must flow. The way both teams go at it, with attack favored over defense, should mean goals at both ends.
For Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, two former Barcelona officials recruited to shape Manchester City on and off the field, the intrigue runs deep.
They recruited Pellegrini, and the players, on behalf of City's Middle Eastern owners. And Begiristain, who played on Barcelona's left wing from 1988 to 1995 and is now City's director of soccer, said at the draw in Nyon, Switzerland: "It will be very tough, but I'm very confident because Pellegrini knows Barcelona perfectly. It's true, it could be better, but if you want to win the Champions League, you have to beat the biggest ones - and Barcelona is one of the biggest."
The teams' two Argentine stars, City's Sergio Agüero and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, are injured, but each should be recovered and well rested by February.
The draw produced a similar sensation of the familiar for other teams. Health permitting, Galatasaray's Didier Drogba will return to Stamford Bridge, where he led Chelsea's attack for eight years, to face one of his former coaches there, José Mourinho.
Two seasons ago, Drogba scored the tying goal for Chelsea against Bayern Munich in the final of this tournament, and then scored the penalty kick to win the cup in his last game for Chelsea.
After a brief side trip into Chinese soccer, he moved to Turkey. He has been joined there by Wesley Sneijder, who in 2010 had helped Inter Milan (then coached by Mourinho) win the 2010 Champions League final.
They, too, will meet again, and this is the pattern of the tournament.
Because so few clubs can afford to be real contenders, and because players and managers move on whether they win or lose, their paths are certain to cross.
Bayern Munich overcame its losses to Drogba's Chelsea and Sneijder's Inter to win the trophy last May. Along the way, it met Arsenal. Bayern won handsomely in London but, with qualification assured for the German team and impossible for Arsenal, it lost the return leg in Munich.
The clubs were drawn as adversaries Monday. Bayern is the favorite to win again, but nobody rules out Arsenal at any time, against any foe.
The other matchups drawn Monday were Olympiakos versus Manchester United; A.C. Milan versus Atlético Madrid; Bayer Leverkusen versus Paris St.-Germain; Schalke versus Real Madrid; and Zenit St. Petersburg versus Borussia Dortmund.
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