Analysis · Miscellaneous

Upcoming Draws

Every draw still to come across the competitions this site tracks.

Knockout phase play-off draw: 29 January 2027

Not the official UEFA draw — an illustrative snapshot based on the league phase table as it stands after Matchday 1 (2026–27 league phase). The draw is banded (9th–10th can only face 23rd–24th, 11th–12th only 21st–22nd, and so on), and within a band the exact pairing is only decided at the draw itself — that's why each side below lists both possible opponents rather than a fixed pair. Everything here will keep changing as the league phase plays out.

9th–10th vs 23rd–24th

9thAston Villa
or10thLens
vs
23rdLille
or24thSlavia Prague

11th–12th vs 21st–22nd

11thReal Betis
or12thBorussia Dortmund
vs
21stVillarreal
or22ndClub Brugge

13th–14th vs 19th–20th

13thLiverpool
or14thReal Madrid
vs
19thFenerbahçe
or20thPSV Eindhoven

15th–16th vs 17th–18th

15thArsenal
or16thAEK Athens
vs
17thRoma
or18thShakhtar Donetsk

How the Champions League Knockout Phase Play-off Draw Works

Since the 2024–25 reform, the Champions League no longer draws group-stage pots. All 36 clubs first play a single league phase of eight games each. The top 8 in that table go straight through to the Round of 16, and the bottom 12 are eliminated. The 16 clubs in between — those who finish 9th to 24th — go into the knockout phase play-off round.

That play-off draw splits those 16 clubs into two groups of eight: the higher-finishing seeded clubs (9th–16th) and the lower-finishing unseeded clubs (17th–24th). It isn't a fully open draw, though — it's split into four fixed bands by final ranking, and a seeded club can only be drawn against an unseeded club from its own band: 9th–10th against 23rd–24th, 11th–12th against 21st–22nd, 13th–14th against 19th–20th, and 15th–16th against 17th–18th. Within a band, the two seeded clubs are drawn against the two unseeded ones, still subject to the league phase's usual restrictions — a club cannot be drawn against a side it already faced, and two clubs from the same association cannot meet. The tie is played over two legs, with the seeded club hosting the second leg. The eight winners join the top 8 from the league phase in the Round of 16.