CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Champions League playoff round draw: seven of these 14 teams will play in 2024/25 league phase
After the third qualifying round, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Co have a clearer idea of their opponents in the UCL.
The UEFA Champions League moves into a new era in 2024/25, with the format we’ve known and loved since 2003 no more. Following the completion of qualification, the 32-team group phase will be replaced by a 36-team league phase for the first time. Most of the usual suspects, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool, will still be involved, of course.
There is only one more qualifying round to be played - the playoff round - after the third qualifying round concluded on Tuesday (August 13). That means 14 clubs are fighting for the seven remaining spot in said league phase. 29 teams have already qualified for the first round proper, which will work as such.
Who does the 2024/25 UCL league phase work?
Instead of teams being drawn into eight groups of four and playing six group games, they will instead take part in eight matches and go into one giant table (that’s going to be a lot of scrolling on your results app of choice), with goal difference the first tie-breaker for teams finishing level on points.
The competition will deploy the ‘Swiss model’, commonly used in chess tournaments, which means not every team in the ‘league’ will play each other.
The 36 clubs will be divided into four pots of nine, which will be based on UEFA’s five-year club coefficient (basically how each club has performed in European competition in the last five years).
Each team will be drawn to face two clubs from each pot, including their own, which should ensure their eight group-stage matches are of similar difficulty on the whole. As has been the case up until now, two teams from the same country cannot be drawn against other.
Which teams have qualified for the 2024-25 Champions League group phase?
Pot 1
- Real Madrid (Spain)
- Manchester City (England)
- Bayern Munich (Germany)
- PSG (France)
- Liverpool (England)
- Inter Milan (Italy)
- Borussia Dortmund( Germany)
- RB Leipzig (Germany)
- Barcelona (Spain)
Pot 2
- Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)
- Atlético Madrid (Spain)
- Atalanta (Italy)
- Juventus (Italy)
- Benfica (Portugal)
- Arsenal (England)
- Club Brugge (Belgium)
- Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
Pot 2 or 3
- AC Milan (Italy)
Pot 3
- Feyenoord (Netherlands)
- Sporting CP (Portugal)
- PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Pot 3 or 4
- Celtic (Scotland)
Pot 4
- Monaco (France)
- Aston Villa (England)
- Bolgona (Italy)
- Girona (Spain)
- Stuttgart (Germany)
- Sturm Graz (Austria)
- Brest (France)
The pots for the league phrase will only be finalised once all 36 qualifiers are known.
2024/25 Champions League playoff round draw
The playoff round is the final qualifying phase and will decide which clubs take the seven remaining spots. The first legs of the ties below will be played on 20/21 August, with the seconds legs following on 27/28 August.
Champions path
Young Boys (Switzerland) - Galatasaray (Türkiye)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) - Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
Midtjylland (Denmark) - Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)
Bodo/Glimt (Norway) - Red Star Belgrade (Serbia)
Malmo (Sweden) - Sparta Prague (Czechia)
League path
Lille (France) - Slavia Prague (Czechia)
Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) - Red Bull Salzburg (Austria)
Which teams qualify for the knockout stages?
The top eight teams in the league go through to the knockout stages, with the 16 teams who finish between ninth and 24th taking part in a two-legged playoff to join them. The playoff winners will be unseeded in the next round, with the competition reverting back to its ‘traditional’ format thereafter.