20 February 2025 GMT: 03:26

Man City, PSG avoid early exits from UEFA Champions League

January 30 – Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain secured vital victories on the final matchday of the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League group phase to ensure qualification to the play-off round. 

The final dramatic night of action in the new-look first phase lived up to expectations on Wednesday as a host of teams discovered whether they had reached the last 16 directly, the play-offs or were eliminated all together. 

An unprecedented 18 games were played concurrently, although results in the end provided no major shock exits. However, there were some surprise outcomes following the initial eight-matchday schedule. 

Three English teams – Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool – finished in the top eight and will be seeded for the Round of 16.

Meanwhile, Manchester City had to win just to maintain hope of a second UCL title and were in grave danger before rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1.

“In the second half we let our souls and hearts free,” said City manager Pep Guardiola, who had a nervous evening including being shown a yellow card.

Brugge, even in defeat, secured 24th spot and the final play-off place on goal difference. 

Elsewhere, Spanish giants Barcelona and Atlético Madrid secured their safe passages to the last 16, as did Inter Milan, Lille and Bayer Leverkusen. 

The list of automatic qualifiers excludes Real Madrid despite a 3-0 win at Brest, Bayern Munich who triumphed 3-1 over Slovan Bratislava and Paris Saint-Germain who cruised to a 4-1 win at Stuttgart – Ousmane Dembélé notching a hat-trick. 

Liverpool topped the Champions League standings despite a 3-2 loss with a weakened team at PSV Eindhoven while Barcelona finished runners-up after a 2-2 draw with Atalanta. 

Aston Villa sneaked into eighth in their first appearance in the competition in 42 years as a Morgan Rogers’ hat-trick helped them to a 4-2 win over Celtic.  

Teams qualified automatically to the round of 16 (1-8): 

Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, Aston Villa 

Seeded Play-off teams (9-16): 

Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica. 

Unseeded play-off teams (17-24): 

AS Monaco, Stade Brestois, Feyenoord, Juventus, Celtic, Manchester City, Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge. 

Teams eliminated (25-32): 

Young Boys, Slovan Bratislava, Salzburg, Girona, Leipzig, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz, Red Star Belgrade, Bologna, Shakhtar Donetsk, Stuttgart, Dinamo Zagreb. 

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