When the Champions League draw is held and who Arsenal and Man City could play
The Champions League group stages concluded on Wednesday with Newcastle hearts broken as they were unable to reach the round of 16.
Arsenal and the reigning champions Manchester City secured their spots as group winners to enter the knockout stages of this year’s tournament.
Manchester United, meanwhile, suffered a humiliating exit from Europe entirely, finishing bottom of a group they had been expected to place runners-up in behind Bayern Munich.
As for Newcastle, their fate was decided after losing to AC Milan on Wednesday, with PSG edging second and the Toon Army ultimately finishing bottom.
When is the round of 16 draw and how does it work?
The 2023-24 Champions League round of 16 draw will take place at 11am UK time (12pm CET) on Monday 18 December.
The winners of each group will be seeded, with the runners-up unseeded. Teams from each pot are then drawn against each other (seeded vs unseeded).
Clubs cannot face the same opponents that they played during the group stage, nor can they face another team from the same national association.
Once the draw has concluded, the round of 16 fixtures are to be played across two legs over the course of four weeks in February and March.
- 13-14 February 2024: First legs
- 20-21 February 2024: Remaining first legs
- 5-6 March 2024: Second legs
- 12-13 March 2024: Remaining second legs
After the round of 16, the quarter-finals begin in April. The semi-finals are in late April and early May, and the final will take place on 1 June at Wembley Stadium in London.
How to watch the draw
The draw, which takes place at Uefa’s headquarters in Switzerland, will be shown live on TNT Sports and can also be streamed live at Uefa.com.
Who has qualified?
Arsenal and Manchester City clinched top spot in Group B and Group G respectively.
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Dortmund, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Real Sociedad have also cemented their status as group winners, while Porto, PSG, Lazio, Inter, PSV Eindhoven, RB Leipzig, Napoli and Copenhagen are all runners-up.
Teams qualified for the round of 16
Confirmed group winners in bold, confirmed runners-up in italics:
- Arsenal
- Atletico Madrid
- Barcelona
- Bayern Munich
- Copenhagen
- Dortmund
- Inter
- Lazio
- Leipzig
- Manchester City
- Napoli
- Porto
- PSG
- PSV Eindhoven
- Real Madrid
- Real Sociedad
In a tricky Group F, Newcastle had to beat AC Milan to have any hope of progressing after an agonisingly late penalty snatched a draw for PSG two weeks ago.
However, despite taking the lead Newcastle fell to a 2-1 defeat, while 1-1 for PSG at Dortmund was enough for the Parisians to progress.
Who could Arsenal and Man City face?
As group winners, the Premier League rivals would not have been drawn together anyway, while they cannot face the second-placed sides they played in the groups either.
That means Arsenal will face one of Copenhagen, Inter, Lazio, Leipzig, Napoli, Porto or PSG.
City will play one of Copenhagen, Inter, Lazio, Napoli, Porto, PSG or PSV Eindhoven.
