Champions League Round of 16 draw: teams, bracket, dates, as it happened

Road to Munich: UCL draw

Thanks for tuning in this morning for the draw and stay with US USA for the latest reaction and fallout from this morning's Champions League 2024-25 draw.

SF2: Winner of Benfica/Barça/ BVB/Lille v Winner Feyenoord/Inter/Bayern/Leverkusen

SF1

Winners of PSV/Arsenal/Real Madrid/ Atleti vs winner PSG/Liverpool/ Brugge/ Villa

and now semi-final path

final game in 1/4 stage

Winner of Bayern-Leverkusen vs winner of Feyenoord vs Inter

quarter final three sees:

Winner of Benfica-Barça vs winner BVB-Lille

quarter final 2 will see:

Winner of PSV-Arsenal vs winner Atletico-Real Madrid

first game will be

PSG-Liverpool vs winner Brugge v Villa

Now 1/4 order:

which leaves Benfica set to face FC Barcelona

next pairing sees

Liverpool and they will face PSG

Inter now are paired with Feyenoord

Arsenal next out and they will face PSV

Bayern Munich now face Leverkusen

third tie sees...

Atletico Madrid who face Real Madrid 

next team out is ... Lille who will face Dortmund

We seem ready to go... Giovane Elber is poised and ready to select the balls with the 16 remaining teams.

First up is .... Aston Villa who face Brugge 

The latter draws basically decide which teams will play at home for the first leg/second leg of quarter and semi final stages.

A brief video now outlines the procedure for the draw and explains the bracke-pathway system.

Teams will be in a sliver and blue path.

Pedro Pinto confirms that the precise dates and times of the R16 games will be communicated by UEFA later tonight.

The 16 contenders

...these are the teams who will be drawn from the big bowls at UEFA HQ in a matter of minutes

Bayern Munich icon will be our draw assistant today and it's former Brazilian striker Giovane Elber on hand to draw the balls.

It's not a UEFA draw until Giorgio Marchetti hits the stage with the Italian talking us through the draw procedure.

A strong Claudio Ranieri vibe from Giorgio today !

And indeed, there he is, Mr. Pedro Pinto is on hand to oversee the draw ceremony.

He reflects on how on three Italian sides fell aside in the playoffs as Juve, Atalanta and AC Milan were all eliminated at this stage of the competition. 

A brief video showcasing the 16 remaining sides follows with a punchy throbbing electro soundbead.

Excitments builds at Barcelona

Barça finished in second place in the group stage and could face Benfica again (as they did in the league stage) or take on Luis Enrique and his PSG side who staggered over the line to secure a playoff place before outclassing Brest with a 10-0 aggregate win.

We're just moments away from crossing to Nyon where the pieces in the 'Road to Munich' jigsaw will fall into place.

When will the R16 games be played?

The first leg of the Round of 16 matches will be played on both Tuesday & Wednesday 4/5 with the second legs taking place a week later on 11/12 March.

The precise dates for the games along with the kick-off times will be communicated by UEFA later this evening.

To win UCL

...according to stats experts @FootballRankings

surprised to see Atletico so low ....

This is what it's all about

It may not be elegant, compact or the most modern looking trophy, but there is something truly iconic about of the the game's most recognizable pieces of silverware. Old Big Ears as it's affectionately known.

Where the last 16 hail from

Germany, Spain and England have three representatives a piece with two sides from the Netherlands and France.

Italy, Portugal and Belgium all have one representative.

The exodus of Italian sides in the playoff (Milan, Juve and Atalanta) coupled with the success of LaLiga outfits has seen Spain leapfrog Italy and it looks inevitable that the top five teams from the 24-25 LaLiga table will participate in the 2025-26 edition of the Champions League.

Champions League 24-25, dates for the diary

Round of 16: 4/5 & 11/12 March
Quarter-finals: 8/9 & 15/16 April
Semi-finals: 29/30 April & 6/7 May
Final: 31 May (Munich)

The last 16

The 16 teams who will feature in today's draw:

Liverpool
Barcelona
Arsenal
Inter Milan
Atlético Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen
Lille
Aston Villa

Feyenoord
Club Brugge
Benfica 
Bayern Munich 
Borussia Dortmund
PSV 
PSG 
Real Madrid

Madrid still in hunt for 'sextuple'

Despite having ambitions of winning a 'never been done before' septuple dashed by their Spanish Super Cup final loss to FC Barcelona in January, Real Madrid could still bag six titles this season.

At present, Los Blancos have a UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental trophy in their cabinet.

Ancelotti's men are in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey, into the Round of 16 of the Champions League and sit in second place in LaLiga.

The new trophy that the 2024-25 season offers is the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup which takes place in the USA during June/July.  

Bookies tip Los Blancos

The bookies have enlisted the Santiago Bernabeu side as favourites to lift another (what would be their 16th) European Cup in Munich in May.

Group stage winners Liverpool are seen as second favourites with FC Barcelona completing the podium in third place (tied with Arsenal).

When it comes to the Champions League/European Cup, Real Madrid become a different animal.

How many times have we seen Los Blancos with poor performances progress ...think Wolfsburg, RB Leipzig in recent times, along with defeats to Lille, Liverpool and Milan this season.

When it comes to the Round of 16 onwards, no-one will want to cross paths with Carlo Ancelotti's side who have a knack of being able to turn it on in big European nights.

"Los Blancos" wait

Having eclipsed Man City in the playoff round, Real Madrid now know that they will face either Atletico Madrid or Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen in the next round.

Diego Simeone's side seem to be the team, many Madridistas seem keen to face in the Round of 16.

UEFA HQ gets ready

We're just over an hour away from going live to Nyon in Switzerland for the draw. 

Giorgio Marchetti will inevitably be on hand to guide us through the process with, one would imagine, Pedro Pinto the host for the event.

Other UEFA club competition draws

I'd envisage this morning's draw to last approximately 30-35 minutes or so.

The draw is conditioned by the bracket/pathway style so once the great mystery of who plays whom in the Round of 16, the rest is really to determine the home/away teams in the subsequent rounds.

The other UEFA draws this morning are scheduled for: Europa League 7am, ET with the Conference League draw concluding the trio an hour later.  

How the bracket looks

The 'bracket' is a common feature in US sports when it comes to the playoffs as it offers teams a future vision of the path ahead in the quest to reach the final of any given competition.

Fans spend hours poring over the graphic with 'well if we beat team X, then we could face Y or Z in the next round'. 

Gunners eye Dutch rivals

Mikel Arteta's men will be travelling to the Netherlands for one of their games and the draw will dictate if it's to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord or Eindhoven where PSV await. 

Potential high profile clashes

Given the nature of the new format... Swiss Model group stage with 24 teams progressing, we now know a couple of possible high profile games ahead of the draw...

Given that Real Madrid overcame Man City, Los Blancos will now face either Bayer Leverkusen or city rivals Atletico Madrid.

FC Barcelona too know that they could face one of PSG or Benfica.

A top of the table Bundesliga clash could also be on the cards with Leverkusen (or Atletico) a possible rival for Bayern. 

Today will be the last draw action of the current Champions League 24-25 given that apart from the Round of 16, the bracket/pathway to the final in Munich will also be drawn with teams able to see potential rivals that lie ahead as they look to claim a berth in the biggest game in European club football.

Teams will be drawn on a silver and blue side. The team that makes it to the final from the silver side will be regarded as the home side in Munch (even if Bayern progress) given that the venue is, in theory a neutral one.

Champions League 24-25, key outstanding dates

Round of 16: 4/5 & 11/12 March
Quarter-finals: 8/9 & 15/16 April
Semi-finals: 29/30 April & 6/7 May
Final: 31 May (Munich)

Playoff takiling points

If Manchester City were the talking point of the final round of group stage games with the Sky Blues just scraping into the next stage with a win over Club Brugge, the playoff games belonged to two protagonists in Kylian Mbappé and PSV Eindhoven.

The French striker bagged a second leg hat-trick as Real Madrid eclipsed Man City in the Spanish capital with the Eredivisie side coming behind to beat Serie A giants Juventus and confirm their place in the final sixteen.

A word of note too for Glasgow Celtic who were on the cusp of taking their tie against Bayern Munich to extra time before a 94th strike from Davies saw the Bundesliga giants progress.

The 16!

The bottom eight teams progressed via the playoffs and the top eight teams are the higher seeded sides and they will play the return leg of the Round of 16 at home.

Hello and welcome to our live Round of 16 draw as we approach the business end of the 2024-25 Champions League. 

The draw itself takes place at 0600 am ET but we'll be offering plenty of analysis and insight ahead of the draw in Nyon.