Which Teams have to play the two-legged playoffs?

The top eight teams – namely Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, and Aston Villa – have earned a direct spot into the Round of 16.

Here’s how the draw system works for the teams ranked 9th-24th:

Teams are organized into 8 paired seeding bowls based on their league phase rankings:

• • Bowl 1: Teams ranked 9 & 10 (seeded)
  • Bowl 2: Teams ranked 11 & 12 (seeded)
  • Bowl 3: Teams ranked 13 & 14 (seeded)
  • Bowl 4: Teams ranked 15 & 16 (seeded)
  • Bowl 5: Teams ranked 17 & 18 (unseeded)
  • Bowl 6: Teams ranked 19 & 20 (unseeded)
  • Bowl 7: Teams ranked 21 & 22 (unseeded)
  • Bowl 8: Teams ranked 23 & 24 (unseeded)

  • The draw process

    They start with the unseeded teams (ranks 17-24), beginning with the lowest-ranked pair:

  • Draw the first team from a pair and place it on the silver side of the bracket
  • The second team automatically goes to the blue side
  • They work upward from ranks 23/24 to 17/18

Then they move to the seeded teams (ranks 9-16):

• • Start with ranks 15/16 and follow the same process
  • First team drawn goes to silver side, second to blue side
  • Continue upward through the rankings
  • Finish with teams ranked 9/10
  • This process creates the full playoff bracket that will determine which teams advance to join the top 8 in the Round of 16.