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.
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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
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This process creates the full playoff bracket that will determine which teams advance to join the top 8 in the Round of 16.