The new phase of the Champions League League reached a conclusion on Wednesday night with 18 games that took place simultaneously in a successful night of action.
Liverpool ended at the top of the 36 -team table after winning seven victories and suffering only a defeat of his eight games.
The Arne Slot team joined Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atlético de Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa to finish among the top eight of the competition. The eight best sides secured an automatic step until the 16 round, which is scheduled for early March.
Manchester City emerged as one of the most relieved sides on Wednesday, with the Pep Guardiola side avoiding becoming one of the 12 sides eliminated when coming from behind to get a 3-1 victory over the Brugge club.
The winners of the 2023 Champions League advanced to the stages eliminated at the end of 22º at the table, but now face a nightmare road if they will win the tournament for the second time.
Mail Sport explains how the elimination stage takes place before the draw that will take place on Friday.
Man City Boss Pep Guardiola faces a discouraging tiebreaker in the Champions League
Premier League champions will have to face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich
How does the new elimination scenario work?
When renewing the format discarding the stages of the group in favor of the unique league phase, UEFA also needed to adjust the qualifying stages of the tournament.
While eight teams automatically reserved points in the last 16, the teams classified between the ninth and 24th need to compete in an additional play-off round to seal their places.
UEFA last year chose to adopt a tennis style planting for the qualifying stages, after the governing body resolved, would take 'three or four hours' organize the draw manually under the new format of the competition.
UEFA estimated that the champions League draw could only last 'three or four hours' and present around 900 balls if it had been carried out in the same style as before.
Where the teams ended up at the table finally formed the competition range, with equipment that obtained seeds for the eliminatory stage based on their position.
The teams have matched, with Liverpool and Barcelona winning the first two sowings after finishing first and second. It means that the only way in which teams can meet in the competition this year is whether they both advance to the final in Munich.
Similarly, they can only face Arsenal and Inter from Milan, which ended third and fourth respectively, in the semifinal stage.
The eight best parts, having won a planting, will sit against the winners of the Play-Off round in the last 16.
Manchester City did not sow in the Play-off raffle and have matched Celtic
UEFA has confirmed the sowings for the Play-Off raffle based on the equipment league positions
Why does Man City face a nightmare path?
The humble 22nd place of Man City ends at the table, while it is enough to make the elimination stage, it has let the Guardiola side be seen as a 'not sown' team.
Citizens have been paired in the raffle with Celtic, with the Scottish champions that ended in position 21.
They will be attracted against the 11 or 12th side on the table, which has turned out to be the European Giants of Real Madrid, the current headlines and the Bayern Munich.
Man City will have to wait to see on Friday which heavyweights will be attracted to a two-legged play-off to fight to reach the last 16 of the competition.
UEFA has confirmed that the raffle will begin with the non -sown equipment that are placed on the support, starting with the classified sides 23/24 and ending with those of 17/18.
A ball will open to show the equipment that will see them placed on the 'silver' side of the support, as they call it UEFA.
Your matching equipment will be placed automatically on the other side of the raffle on the 'blue' side of the support.
After placing the non -sown equipment, the planted equipment will sit attracted to their points reserved to determine the raffles.
UEFA has revealed the group for the tournament, based on a tennis -style planting system
Arne Slot's Liverpool could face PSG, Benfica, Monaco or Brest in the 16 round
The raffle will end when the 9/10 classified teams are placed for the Knockout Round play-offs, in this case Atalanta and Borussia Dortmund.
The sown team, in principle, will play the leg back at home.
The first legs of the Play-Off round will take place on February 11 to 12, with the return accessories held on February 18 and 19.
How would they look for the last 16 for the Premier League teams?
After being confirmed as one of the two main seeds of the competition, along with Barcelona, Liverpool knows that they will face Monaco, Brest, PSG and Benfica in the 16 round.
The Arsenal finished the phase of the league in third place and will be paired with Inter Milan in the draw, which occupied fourth place.
The gunners will face one of AC Milan, Juventus, PSV or Feyenoord on the last March 16.
Having secured the final automatic place in the last 16 at the end of Eighth, Aston Villa could align against Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon and Bruges.
If Man City advances through his play-off's round against Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, Guardiola's team would be online to meet Bayer Leverkusen or Atlético de Madrid.