Champions League round-up: 36 clubs' fate decided after intense final matchday

Champions League round-up: 36 clubs' fate decided after intense final matchday

Manchester City v Club Brugge KV - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD8
Manchester City v Club Brugge KV - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD8 | Carl Recine/GettyImages

The final matchday of the League phase of the UEFA Champions League played out on Wednesday night, with the fates of every club being decided in the crucial fixtures.

The first edition of the newly formed Champions League group stage, which is now the League phase, has come to its conclusion, with the 36 teams finding out who made the top eight, who made the play-offs and whose UCL journey comes to an end.

For Manchester City, their match against Club Brugge was one of the most vital fixtures of their season so far, and anything less than a win would be sending the 2023 champions out in an early exit, due to their poor run of results in the competition.

With this round now over with, we are left with 24 clubs in this season's Champions League. Eight have already booked their place in the last round of 16, while the others must go through a play-off round to accompany the top eight to make up the last 16.

Matchday Eight results

Manchester City 3-1 Club Brugge

Inter Milan 3-0 Monaco

Barcelona 2-2 Atalanta

RB Salzburg 1-4 Atletico Madrid

Bayern Munich 3-1 Slovan Bratislava

Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 AC Milan

Young boys 0-1 Red Star Belgrade

Stuttgart 1-4 Paris Saint-Germain

LOSC Lille 6-1 Feyenoord

Girona 1-2 Arsenal

Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Shakhtar

Stade Brest 0-3 Real Madrid

Leverkusen 2-0 Sparta Prague

PSV Eindhoven 3-2 Liverpool

Sporting Lisbon 1-1 Bologna

Juventus 0-2 Benfica

Aston Villa 4-2 celtic

Sturm Graz 1-0 RB Leipzig

Despite going 1-0 down in the first half, Manchester City got the all-important job done by going on to score three goals in the last 45 minutes to get out of the elimination zone and secure a play-off place.

Champions League top eight

The teams that come in the top eight have automatically qualified for the round of the 16.

1. Liverpool - 21pts

2. Barcelona - 19pts

3. Arsenal - 19pts

4. Inter Milan - 19pts

5. Atletico Madrid - 18pts

6. Leverkusen - 16pts

7. LOSC Lille - 16pts

8. Aston Villa - 16pts

Champions League teams in the play-offs

9-24 are still in the competition and will have to go through an extra round to qualify for the last 16.


9. Atalanta - 15pts

10. Borussia Dortmund - 15pts

11. Real Madrid - 15pts

12. Bayern Munich - 15pts

13. AC Milan - 15pts

14. PSV Eindhoven - 14pts

15. Paris Saint-Germain - 13pts

16. Benfica - 13pts

17. Monaco - 13pts

18. Stade Brest - 13pts

19. Feyenoord - 13pts

20. Juevntus - 12pts

21. celtic - 12pts

22. Manchester City - 11pts

23. Sporting Lisbon - 11pts

24. Club Brugge - 11pts

Champions League eliminated teams

25-36 are out of this season's UCL.

25. Dinamo Zagreb - 11pts

26. Stuttgart - 10pts

27. Shakhtar - 7pts

28. Bologna - 6pts

29. Red Star Belgrade - 6pts

30. Sturm Graz - 6pts

31. Sparta Prague

32. RB Leipzig - 3pts

33. Girona - 3pts

34. RB Salzburg - 3pts

35. Slovan Bratislava - 0pts

36. Young boys - 0pts

Manchester City have ended the league phase of the UCL in 22nd place, meaning they'll have to go through the play-offs to try to secure a spot in the last 16.

Manchester City will either take on Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the play-offs. It is safe to say a huge fixture that many wouldn't have predicted to happen so early on. If they are successful in that matchup, the last round of 16 tie would be against either La Liga's Atletico Madrid or German champs Leverkusen.

The draw for the play-offs takes place on Friday, the 31st of January and after the play-offs, the draw for every stage of the competition until the final will be on Friday the 21st of February.