Who Man City and Celtic could face in Champions League knockout phase play-off as date for draw revealed

Ahead of kick-off, Pep Guardiola’s underperforming side came into their final league phase game against Club Brugge in 25th place following a 4-2 defeat over Paris Saint-Germain last week.

It was nervy times for the reigning Premier League champions but, much to their relief, the Citizens will enter the knockout phase play-off draw on January 31 after a 3-1 win over Club Brugge lifted them into 22nd.

Things looked grim for the home side just before half-time, when Brugge took a shock lead through Raphael Onyedika

But second-half goals from Mateo Kovacic, Joel Ordonez [OG] and Savinho sealed a crucial three points for Guardiola’s men, who will face either Real Madrid [11th] or Bayern Munich [12th] in the knockout phase  play-off draw.

So what happens next? The brand new 36-team Champions League format has seen each side play eight different teams – four at home and four away – in a league phase.

Teams who secured a place in the top eight have automatically qualified for the last 16, while those who finished between ninth and 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.

As mentioned earlier, Manchester City will come up against either Real Madrid [11th] or Bayern Munich [12th] in that two-legged knockout play-off after finishing 22nd, while Celtic will also take on either Madrid or Bayern after finishing 21st.

How does the draw work?

UEFA have explained the slightly overwhelming process on their official website. So here goes.

The knockout phase play-off draw will take place from 12:00 CET on Friday 31 January in Nyon, Switzerland.

In total, eight bowls are prepared for the draw, with the balls containing the names of the seeded and unseeded teams placed in pairs in the corresponding marked bowls according to the league phase rankings.

The draw starts with the unseeded teams, allocating each team from a pair of unseeded teams to one of the relevant pre-determined positions in the bracket, starting with the sides ranked 23/24 and finishing with those in 17/18.

One ball is taken from the bowl containing the two relevant ranked teams (i.e. the teams ranked 23 and 24) and is opened to display the team.

The first team drawn from this bowl is placed in their reserved spot on the silver side of the bracket. The other unseeded team of the pairing is then drawn and displayed, and allocated in the corresponding reserved spot on the blue side of the bracket.

The same procedure is carried out with the remaining unseeded clubs.

Once all the pairings of unseeded teams have been drawn and assigned to an appropriate position on the bracket, the draw continues with the seeded sides, starting with the pairing ranked 15/16.

The process is the same as described above for the unseeded teams, with the first team drawn from the relevant bowl allocated to the reserved designated spot on the silver side of the bracket and the second team on the blue side.

The procedure is repeated for the remaining pairings, finishing with the teams ranked 9/10 to complete the pairings for the knockout round play-offs. In principle, the seeded clubs play the return leg at home.