Champions League draw: Date, start time, format and how to follow as knockout phase play-offs are decided

The final League Phase games of the revamped Champions League will be played this week, with teams eyeing a place in the knockout stages.

Liverpool and Barcelona are the only two sides guaranteed to be through to the last 16, securing a top-eight finish last week. 

Man City are hoping to reach the play-offs and avoid eliminationCredit: Getty

But it remains up for grabs below them, with teams scrambling for automatic progression and a chance to skip the knockout phase play-offs. 

For those teams who are forced into the play-offs though, with Manchester City likely to be one of them, they won’t have long before they find out their opponent. 

Champions League draw: Date and start time

The Champions League knockout phase play-off draw will be held on Friday, January 31. 

It will take place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. 

Things are expected to get started at 12pm local time which is 11am in the UK. 

Fans can tune in to the draw live on the UEFA.com website. More details are available here. 

The draw is also likely to be shown on UEFA’s YouTube as well as on TNT Sports. 

talkSPORT and talkSPORT.com will also have all the build-up and reaction. 

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. 

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

15-time winners Real Madrid may have to settle for a play-off placeCredit: Getty

Champions League draw: How does it work? 

The draw will include the teams that finish from ninth down to 24th in the league. 

Those 16 teams are going to be separated into two groups of eight, with teams ranked ninth to 16th being seeded and teams 17th to 24th unseeded. 

Seeded sides will then be paired up with another seeded side, while it’s the same in the unseeded group of teams. 

So, 24th and 23rd will form a pair, 22nd and 21st will form a pair and so on…

The pairs will be placed in a total of eight bowls which will correspond to their league phase rankings, so 23rd and 24th-ranked teams will be in the bowl marked 23/24. 

The draw will begin with the unseeded teams, with a ball taken from their corresponding bowl and that time being placed on one side of the bracket. 

This is the predetermined bracket, with teams being drawn on the silver or blue sideCredit: uefa.com

In this new format, there is a blue bracket and a silver bracket, and pairs will already be given predetermined places (as shown by the image above). 

The first teams drawn from the unseeded bowls will be on the silver side and the second takes a place on the blue side. 

Once all pairs from 23rd and 24th to 17th and 18th and drawn and in their places in the play-off bracket, the draw continues with the seeded teams. 

In the same fashion, the seeded teams will be drawn from their corresponding bowls and placed into their predetermined places, with the first drawn in silver and second in blue.

The draw will finish with the seeded teams who finished ninth or tenth being drawn and slotting in to face the 23rd or 24th-placed finishers respectively.

Seeded clubs will play the first leg of their play-off away and the second leg at home. 

Champions League draw: Teams 

There are no teams confirmed to finish in the knockout phase play-offs yet. 

However, here’s what we definitely know about the positions with one game left.

Confirmed into Round of 16

Liverpool, Barcelona 

Confirmed in Round of 16 or knockout phase play-offs

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Brest, Celtic, Dortmund, Feyenoord, Inter Milan, Juventus, Leverkusen, Lille, AC Milan, Monaco, Real Madrid

Competing for knockout phase play-off places 

Manchester City, PSG, Club Brugge, Benfica, PSV, Sporting Lisbon, Stuttgart, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk 

Eliminated

Bologna, Red Star Belgrade, Girona, Leipzig, Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz, Young Boys