Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbappé had been left holding a ticket to the Champions League knockout spherical Wednesday after a tense end to the tightest group noticed Newcastle let its probability slip.
Porto additionally earned its place within the spherical of 16 draw on Monday with a 5-3 victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, which wanted to win to advance.
PSG’s 1-1 draw at Group F winner Borussia Dortmund — earned by 17-year-old Warren Zaïre-Emery’s 56th-minute leveler — was sufficient to safe second place as a result of Newcastle misplaced 2-1 at residence to AC Milan.
“We are still alive,” stated PSG coach Luis Enrique, whose unseeded crew can now be drawn to face Manchester City, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. “No team will hope to play us in the next round.”
Newcastle was within the field seat kicking off the second half with a one-goal lead however led to final place with out even the comfort prize of getting into the second-tier Europa League as a third-place finisher.
That reward flipped to Milan when it took the lead within the 84th as substitute Samuel Chukwueze raced clear to attain one minute after approaching from the bench. Milan had leveled within the 59th on United States playmaker Christian Pulisic’s purpose.
Newcastle joined Manchester United in shedding at residence — United on Tuesday — to complete backside of a bunch and provides England its weakest spherical of 16 problem for 11 years: simply defending champion Man City and Arsenal are within the draw Monday.
“We are absolutely devastated not to go through,” Newcastle supervisor Eddie Howe stated.
The 16-team lineup was accomplished by Porto, which completed runner-up in Group H to Barcelona although the Spanish champion misplaced 3-2 at Royal Antwerp.
Atletico Madrid’s 2-0 win over Lazio ensured it could end prime of Group E and be seeded in Monday’s draw. Lazio had already superior earlier than the ultimate spherical of video games. Last-place Celtic bought a stoppage-time purpose to beat Feyenoord 2-1.
Man City despatched out a crew of few common starters — together with former ball boy Micah Hamilton who scored on his debut — to win 3-2 at Red Star Belgrade and make sure the defending champion accomplished a six-win program atop Group G.
In the opposite group recreation that additionally didn’t have an effect on the ultimate standings, Leipzig beat Young Boys 2-1.
ROUND OF 16 DRAW
The draw at UEFA headquarters on Monday contains eight former champions who’ve mixed to win 33 of the 67 titles for the reason that European Cup began in 1955.
Group winners (seeded): Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, Barcelona.
Runners-up (unseeded): Copenhagen, PSV Eindhoven, Napoli, Inter Milan, Lazio, Paris Saint-Germain, Leipzig, Porto.
In the spherical of 16, groups can’t play an opponent from their very own nation or a crew they already confronted within the group stage. Draws later within the season for the quarterfinals and semifinals are open with no seeding or nation safety.
EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Third-place groups in Champions League teams maintain taking part in in February within the knockout playoffs for the second-tier Europa League, which are also drawn Monday.
Playoffs qualifiers: Galatasaray, Lens, Braga, Benfica, Feyenoord, AC Milan, Young Boys, Shakhtar Donetsk.
Those groups will likely be unseeded, taking part in the house leg first, towards runner-up groups within the Europa League teams. Those runners-up embody Sporting Lisbon, and will add Roma and Brighton after Thursday’s video games.
Winners of the Europa League playoffs advance to the spherical of 16 to face group winners like Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, present leaders of the Premier League and Bundesliga, respectively.
LAST-EVER GROUP STAGE
The Champions League stated farewell Wednesday to the normal round-robin teams of 4 groups taking part in one another residence and away.
Last 12 months, UEFA permitted a brand new and expanded 36-team format underneath stress from golf equipment who need extra assured video games, a different program with extra higher-quality opponents and more cash.
Each crew within the 2024-25 Champions League will play eight video games as a substitute of six, towards eight totally different opponents, in a single standings to rank them.
The prime eight groups in January 2025 will advance to a 16-team knockout section in a seeded draw like a tennis event bracket. Teams positioned 9 by 24 within the standings will likely be paired in two-leg playoffs to fill the spherical of 16 bracket.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
