Champions League knockout draw: explanation

2025-01-30 22:44 © ZUMAPRESS.com

On Friday, the draw for the first knockout stage of the Champions League will take place. Following that, the draws for the Europa League will also occur.

UEFA, which created the new format, has left many fans in the dark – it is not easy to understand how the new draw ceremony will work.

After the first stage of the Champions League, teams can practically be divided into three groups. The first group is the top eight, which qualified directly to the Round of 16 and will only learn their exact opponents in the draw on February 21. For now, they only know four preliminary possibilities. The second group consists of teams that finished in 9th to 16th place in the "league phase." The third group includes those teams that placed 17th to 24th.

First group: "Liverpool," "Barcelona," "Arsenal," "Inter," "Atletico," "Bayer," "Lille," "Aston Villa"

Second group: "Atalanta"/"Dortmund," "Real"/"Bayern," "Milan"/PSV, PSG/"Benfica"

Third group: "AS Monaco"/"Brest," "Feyenoord"/"Juventus," "Celtic"/"Man City," "Sporting"/"Club Brugge"

UEFA could have made things simpler by having the team finishing 9th in the "league phase" meet with the team finishing 24th, but instead, other rules were introduced that guarantee greater variation and two additional draw ceremonies. Through these, additional revenue can, of course, be generated from sponsors.

The teams that finished highest in the "league phase," excluding the top eight, Borussia and Atalanta, will face the lowest-placed teams, Sporting and Brugge. Exact matchups will be determined by the draw. After that, Real or Bayern will meet Celtic or Manchester City, and so on until the end of the draws, at which point the knockout matchups will be clarified.

The team that finished first in this year's Champions League season, "Liverpool," will need to keep an eye on the Feyenoord/"Juventus" – Milan/PSV side. Interestingly, since the beginning of the knockout phase, matches between teams from the same association are allowed.

The Champions League draw will take place on Friday at 1 PM. An hour later, the Europa League draws will begin.