Liverpool will aim to carry their extraordinary Premier League form into the Champions League when the title holders face hosts Atletico Madrid in the last 16.
A win at Norwich was their 42nd league match without defeat and with Sadio Mane and James Milner back from injury manager Juergen Klopp has an almost full squad to choose from for the clash at Wanda Metropolitano, where they lifted the trophy last year.
The other Tuesday evening match pits the highly-charged attacking line-ups of Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain in Germany.
On Wednesday, beaten 2019 finalists Tottenham Hotspur host Leipzig while Atalanta face Valencia - with the other four first-leg ties next week.
Liverpool are storming towards their first league title in 30 years and should be raring to go after the mini winter break before their defeat of the Canaries.
Diego Simeone's Atletico appear not quite as gritty as in the past and well off the pace in La Liga after just one win in their past seven games.
However, the 2014 and 2016 runners-up can never be underestimated.
"Playing Atletico I would say is one of the most difficult things in the life of a football player," Klopp said.
"They are really well organised - a results machine, squeezing results pretty much out of each game if possible.
Atletico will be without their England defender Kieran Trippier and likely also Portuguese star Joao Felix, and Simeone is well aware of the task they face.
Under Klopp, Liverpool have set new standards this season, following up last year's European success by remaining unbeaten in the Premier League with 25 wins from 26 games and winning the Club World Cup.
"We've always spoken about great sides throughout time and this Liverpool side will go down in history," Simeone said.
"I really like this Liverpool team because they're direct but they can change the way they play too and I admire that."
The game in Dortmund sees PSG coach Tuchel face his former club, from which he left on bad terms but has insisted he has gotten over it.
PSG want to avoid a fourth straight last 16 exit.
Both sides have conceded far too many goals recently but they can also score freely with PSG boasting the likes of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Mauro Icardi; and Dortmund the teenage sensations Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho.
Norway's Haaland wants to improve on his competition tally of eight he scored for Salzburg in the group stage before a January move to Dortmund where he has found the net nine times.
"Given our attacking quality to don't have to take too many risks to create chances," Dortmund defender Mats Hummels said.
Australian Associated Press
