When is the Champions League 2024/25 play-offs draw?

The Independent

·20 December 2024

When is the Champions League 2024/25 play-offs draw?

The Champions League format will see its new play-offs format in action for the first time in February, to decide which teams enter the last-16 knockout round.

The top eight teams in the final Champions League league-phase table will automatically go through to the last-16. They will be joined by the play-offs: a set of eight two-legged ties between those clubs who finished between ninth and 24th in the league standings.

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There are five British sides in the Europa League, with Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Celtic all hoping to go far in the competition.

Here is all you need to know about the Champions League play-offs draw.

When is the play-offs draw?

The Champions League play-offs draw will take place on 31 January 2025.

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Real Madrid won the final at Wembley after beating Borussia Dortmind (AP)

How does the draw work?

The teams that finished between ninth and 16th in the league standings will be seeded for the play-offs draw, and they will each be drawn against an unseeded team that finished between 17th and 24th in the table.

The seeded team will have the slight advantage of playing the second leg at home.

Teams will be paired together in the draw, so the two sides who finished ninth and 10th will be drawn against either the 23rd or 24th placed sides; the teams who finished 11th and 12th will be drawn against either the 21st or 22nd-placed sides, and so on.

The eight winners from the play-offs will meet the top eight from the league phase in the last-16, where straight knockout rounds will run all the way to the final.