Champions League knockout phase play-offs draw LIVE: Date, teams involved, format and full schedule

The League Phase of the 2025/26 Champions League season is done, which means the play-offs are around the corner.

Last season was the first year of the new format of UEFA’s premier competition, which saw the group phase scrapped.

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Instead, every team competes in one big league table, which is split into three distinct sections.

The top eight automatically qualify for the round of 16, while the teams from the 9th-24th places must take part in a two-legged play-off.

The rest are out, and they don’t go into the Europa League anymore with their time in Europe for the season over.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester City all secured automatic progress to the round of 16 with the Premier League sides excelling in Europe this season.

Newcastle are the only English team who will go into the draw for the play-offs and join the likes of Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus.

How do the knockout phase play-offs work?

The teams that finish from ninth to 24th must be whittled down from 16 to eight to complete in the next round.

This is done via a two-legged play-off, with the sides finishing from 9th-16th seeded for the draw.

This means they will be at home for the second leg.

There is a draw to determine who plays who with the eight winners from the play-offs progress to the last 16.

Those games are scheduled to take place on February 17, 18, 24 and 25.

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Champions League final standings

Advance to round of 16 (seeded)

• Arsenal
• Bayern Munich
• Liverpool
• Tottenham Hotspur
• Barcelona
• Chelsea
• Sporting Lisbon
• Manchester City

Advance to knockout phase play-offs (seeded)

• Real Madrid
• Inter Milan
• Paris Saint-Germain
• Newcastle United
• Juventus
• Atletico Madrid
• Atalanta
• Bayer Leverkusen

Advance to knockout phase play-offs (unseeded)

• Borussia Dortmund
• Olympiacos
• Club Brugge
• Galatasaray
• Monaco
• Qarabag
• Bodo/Glimt
• Benfica

Eliminated from all UEFA competitions

• Marseille
• Pafos
• Union Saint-Gilloise
• PSV
• Athletic Bilbao
• Napoli
• Copenhagen
• Ajax
• Eintracht Frankfurt
• Slavia Prague
• Villarreal
• Kairat

Champions League play-off draw: Date and how it works

The Champions League knockout play-off draw is due to take place on Friday, January 30.

It will be held at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland and will begin at 11am UK time.

The 16 clubs are paired into groups, with four seeded pairs in positions 9 and 10 through to 15 and 16 and four unseeded (positions 17 and 18 through to 23 and 24).

This results in clubs 9 and 10 taking on 23 or 24 and so on.

This means that those teams that finish higher up the table, in theory, get an easier draw, with a choice of two possible lower ranked clubs.

Clubs from the same country can also be drawn against each other, and teams who have played each other in the league phase can also be drawn against one another.