Who can Arsenal face in Champions League last-16 knockout stage?

Evening Standard

·29 January 2025

Who can Arsenal face in Champions League last-16 knockout stage?

Comfortable top-eight finish means the Gunners have avoided the knockout play-off round

Arsenal have booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League.

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In the new league phase format, the top eight teams progressed straight through to the last 16 and avoided an extra two-legged knockout play-off tie.

The Gunners were near enough guaranteed a top-eight finish heading into their final league-phase match against Girona, which they fought back to win 2-1 in Spain after goals from Jorginho and Ethan Nwaneri that followed Arnaut Danjuma’s first-half opener.

While there have been some inconsistencies in Arsenal’s Premier League form so far this season, it has been a largely impressive European campaign to date.

After an opening goalless draw away at Atalanta, Mikel Arteta’s side then beat Paris Saint-Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk on home soil.

A narrow defeat against Inter Milan was a rare blip, but the Gunners responded with a dominant 5-1 win away at Sporting Lisbon, before backing it up with victories over Monaco and Dinamo Zagreb to effectively seal qualification.

Who can Arsenal face in Champions League last 16?

Arsenal’s progression straight through to the last 16 means they have a rare gap in the calendar in February, which they are expected to fill with a training camp in Dubai.

The last-16 draw will take place on Friday, February 21. The first leg of those ties will be played on either March 4 or March 5, with the return fixtures a week later.

As a result of finishing third in the league phase, Arsenal will either face the winners of the knockout phase play-off between the 13th and 14th seeds, or the 19th and 20th seeds.

That will be confirmed after the knockout phase play-off draw on Friday (January 31).

AC Milan

PSV Eindhoven

Feyenoord

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