Nyon – Liverpool will take on fellow five-time winners Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League, while Jose Mourinho’s struggling Manchester United face French giants Paris Saint-Germain.

Holders Real Madrid were paired with Ajax in Monday’s draw in Nyon as the Spaniards attempt to lift the trophy for the fifth time in six seasons, while Lionel Messi and Barcelona will play Lyon.

Both Liverpool and Bayern have a rich tradition in the competition, each winning it five times and Liverpool were beaten finalists last season.

Liverpool are the current form side of the two and sit top of the Premier League while Bayern, under new coach Niko Kovac, have been far short of their own high standards in the Bundesliga this season.

“That’s the team of the hour, the league leaders in England, they are playing really good football, very physical, really stepping it up. We are looking forward to it,” Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said of the tie with Liverpool.

“A tough cookie, but that’s something to look forward to as a player.”

– Ronaldo awaits –

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City take on German side Schalke 04 while Atletico Madrid, beaten finalists in 2014 and 2016, come up against Cristiano Ronaldo and Italian heavyweights Juventus.

“A very difficult match, with few goals,” Juve vice-president Pavel Nedved predicted.

“No doubt Cristiano is the man of the Champions League, he has always shown that, with goals and victories. Our team is very strong and we can be calm and confident.”

Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund will meet Tottenham Hotspur for the second season in a row, having faced each other in last year’s group stage, while Roma meet two-time former champions Porto.

“We’ve already met them (Tottenham) twice. A strong opponent, the chances are at 50-50. The team has top players. We are also strong, it will be interesting,” Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sky.

Meanwhile, United go into a first ever meeting with PSG trailing Premier League leaders Liverpool by 19 points following Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Anfield, and face a formidable task against a side featuring Neymar and Kylian Mbappe — the world’s two most expensive players.

Lyon coach Bruno Genesio says his team can draw on their group stage displays against City — a 2-1 win and 2-2 draw — ahead of their clash with five-time European champions Barca.

“We’ll need to pull off two big performances, in the first leg and in the return, but we can do it. We did it against City,” said Genesio.

“It’s tough. They are a team that Lyon has already played against but never beaten. Barca are more experienced and stronger but over two matches anything is possible,” Gerard Houllier, who holds an advisory role at the French club, told RMC Sport.

“The first match is key and we are playing at home. Barca are potential champions. We have nothing to lose. Everything is a bonus for Lyon.”

Champions League last 16 fixtures:

Schalke 04 v Manchester City

Atletico Madrid v Juventus

Manchester United v Paris Saint-Germain

Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund

Lyon v Barcelona

Roma v Porto

Ajax v Real Madrid

Liverpool v Bayern Munich

Teams that finished in second place in the group stage will host the first legs on February 12/13 and 19/20 with the return matches scheduled for March 5/6 and 12/13.

Cape Town – The Jozi Stars will meet the Cape Town Blitz in the inaugural Mzansi Super League final on Sunday after their qualifier against the Paarl Rocks was abandoned due to rain in Johannesburg on Friday.

READ: Paarl Rocks coach lands gig in Hampshire

With a tight schedule and no reserve day in place, the hosts qualified for the decider at Newlands by virtue of ending above the visitors on the final regular-season table.

Jozi finished second with 29 points, while Paarl ended in third spot on 22 points and now bow out of the competition.

Both teams were expected to go full tilt into the highly-anticipated play-off clash at the Wanderers Stadium, but never got to play after heavy Highveld showers arrived shortly after the toss took place.

Despite waiting for as long as they could, umpires Allahudien Paleker and Bongani Jele were left little choice by the inclement weather but to call off the game.

Sunday’s finale will begin at 15h30.

#MSLT20 – ??BREAKING??With the rain not allowing the play-off match to happen @StarsJozi have now proceeded to the final and will play @CT_Blitz on the 16th of December.CONGRATS @StarsJozi GOOD LUCK FOR THE FINAL! pic.twitter.com/mkhcgY315G

— Mzansi Super League ?? ???? ?? (@MSL_T20) December 14, 2018

Cape Town – South African star Cameron van der Burgh has stunned the field in claiming gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke at the 14th FINA World Swimming short course Championship in Hangzhou, China on Wednesday.

Van der Burgh, swimming out of Lane 7, finished in a time of 56.01 to take victory ahead of Belarus’ Ilya Shymanovich (56.10) and Japan’s Yasuhiro Koseki (56.13).

Van der Burgh’s time was a new Championship record, breaking the 56.29 mark set by Brazil’s Felipe França da Silva in Doha in 2014.

The victory was something of a surprise given that Van der Burgh was only ninth-fastest in the heats and sixth-quickest in the semi-finals.

Van der Burgh still holds the world record in the event (55.61), which he posted in Berlin a full nine years ago.

Van der Burgh, now 30, recently got married and relocated to London.

South African team in Hangzhou:

Men

Chad le Clos, Cameron van der Burgh, Brad Tandy, Ryan Coetzee, Ayrton Sweeney, Douglas Erasmus

Women

Erin Gallagher, Emily Visagie, Rebecca Meder

Cape Town – Half-centuries by Morne van Wyk and man of the match Khaya Zondo helped the Durban Heat win only their second Mzansi Super League match of the season after they stunned the Cape Town Blitz by six wickets at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday.

Veteran Van Wyk struck a solid 56 (48 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) with Zondo clubbing a crisp 67 off 42 balls (4 fours, 3 sixes) as the bottom-placed visitors eased to a 162-run victory target with three balls to spare.

It was only a second win of the campaign for the KwaZulu-Natal outfit with their only other one coming in their second-round encounter with the Tshwane Spartans.

They remained rooted to the foot of the table, although the victory will go some way towards lifting the mood in the dressing room.

For the hosts, they found out before the first ball that they were assured of topping the table – and with it earning a home final – after the Jozi Stars were beaten by the Paarl Rocks.

But they will certainly be unhappy after ending their regular season with defeat, which came despite Quinton de Kock again starring via an unbeaten 86 (55 ball, 9 fours, 3 sixes).

The Proteas all-rounder led the way for his side after a top-order flop left them on 28 for three in the seventh over.

Asif Ali (18), Farhaan Behardien (17) and Mohammad Nawaz (23) did offer some support, with the Blitz ending on 161 for six.

Heinrich Klaasen with one for 12 was the most successful of the bowlers for the visitors.

Sarel Erwee (1) and Hashim Amla (16) were the early wickets to fall for the Heat, both to Nawaz (2/21), which left them on 39 for two.

But Van Wyk and Zondo combined nicely for a 79-run third wicket stand that took them to 118 for two, with David Miller (16 not out) helping them get over the line.

Scores in brief:

Cape Town Blitz 161/6 (De Kock 86*, Klaasen 1/12)

Durban Heat 162/4 in 19.3 balls (Zondo 67, Nawaz 2/21)

Heat win by 6 wickets.

Cape Town – If variety is the spice of life, South Africa’s selectors look like having a broader stock of players to choose from soon for Twenty20 international purposes, courtesy of the Mzansi Super League.

A positive overspill into the other white-ball arena – one-day internationals – is also quite possible, even if the Proteas probably have more settled, clearly-identified resources at this point in the 50-overs game.

T20 internationals have limited gravitas – though they can put healthy numbers of bums on seats – whenever there is still some way to go to the next ICC World Twenty20 tournament (now to be called the ICC T20 World Cup and held roughly every two years).

The current period has been an exception, with a gap of four years between the last one, held in India in 2016, and the next due to be hosted by Australia in 2020.

But between now and the Aussie event, most international teams are going to gradually start taking their T20 plans more seriously.

That will very likely include the Proteas, who played a once-off T20 international at the tail-end of their successful white-ball tour Down Under recently and, not without justification, simply kept their ODI personnel there to complete the tour-closer on the Gold Coast.

Apart from the cost saving involved in not flying over additional troops simply for one less-than-heavyweight match, it also meant that the MSL wasn’t deprived of even more national-calibre players at the start of the maiden league – a situation that was never going to be ideal.

But the next few months will see the Proteas play all-formats home series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively, including three T20 internationals in each instance, so expect the SA team to begin to look considerably more “specialist” for the shortest brand of the game.

Already some fresh faces have been blooded in early 2018/19, including batsmen Rassie van der Dussen and Gihahn Cloete, who made debuts against Zimbabwe; the former has made his mark by including a half-century in his two international innings thus far.

As the round-robin phase of the MSL draws toward a close, though, and inadvertently aided by the limited presence of overseas stars in its midst, the tournament is throwing up promising additional candidates for consideration down the line by Linda Zondi and his fellow national selectors.

This is reflected in the lists for leading run-scorers and wicket-takers at this point, featuring several names you would not automatically have branded credible options for SA selection at the outset of the MSL.

For example, running second to the sensational Reeza Hendricks – a reasonably established Proteas player – for most runs is the Cape Town Blitz’s 22-year-old Janneman Malan (279 at an average of a touch under 40).

The Nelspruit-born right-hander has been eye-openingly consistent throughout the MSL, his seven appearances seeing him contribute meaningfully just about every time; he has not registered less than 19 yet at the crease, and has a top score of 66 among his two half-tons.

But another previously unheralded 22-year-old lies seventh on the batting chart, Jozi Stars’ Ryan Rickelton – the former SA Schools left-hander – having accumulated 187 runs at 31, including a scorching 91 (strike rate 154 on what is not normally the quickest of surfaces) in only his second MSL exposure against Paarl Rocks at Boland Park.

On the bowling list, meanwhile, three emerging South African non-internationals occupy berths among the top six scalp-grabbers in the competition as things stand.

Enthusiastically touted by his captain AB de Villiers, Tshwane Spartans speedster Lutho Sipamla, a particularly callow 20, already boasts a trio of “three-fors” in his seven MSL outings giving him a total of 12 dismissals so far and second place for most wickets.

A new spin prospect is on the brew, too, with Paarl Rocks’ left-armer Bjorn Fortuin – a local product, which is always pleasing – showing some good control when asked to bowl often at the outset of opponents’ innings; he is joint-fourth with nine wickets.

Although his tournament was sadly cut very short by injury, the Blitz’s Anrich Nortje had shown a combination of real hostility and admirable discipline in three games, snaring eight wickets in his three outings.

The Eastern Cape man, 25, looks invitingly like a replacement for the great Dale Steyn when the Phalaborwa Express eventually chugs into the sunset …

*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing