The round of 16 Champions League draw was made on Friday morning, featuring Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
The Champions League draw for the round of 16 has been made, with Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa all learning their potential path to the final in Munich.
Liverpool topped the inaugural Champions League league table on 21 points, with their only defeat coming against PSV Eindhoven on the final matchday when there wasn’t anything for Arne Slot’s men to play for.
Arsenal finished two points behind in third place, with Aston Villa coming in eighth and taking the final automatic qualification spot.
As well as the three English sides, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Inter Milan and Lille all qualified automatically.
They all avoided a two-legged Champions League play-off, which resulted in Manchester City being eliminated from the competition following a 6-3 aggregate defeat to holders Real Madrid.
Real were joined by fellow play-off winners Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, Borussia Dortmund and Club Brugge to help create a stacked round of 16 draw on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland.
The draw, the last of the season, was not a random one and was created courtesy of a bracket going off a new ‘seeding’ system based on league table standings.
The eight automatically-qualified teams are seeded and were placed in four separate pairs going off their league standing – with Liverpool grouped with Barcelona, Arsenal with Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid with Bayer Leverkusen and Lille and Aston Villa.
The pairs were placed in one of two positions in the draw, meaning they will be in opposite sides of the bracket and cannot face one another until the final.
Each team had two possible options for the round of 16, depending on which side of the bracket they were drawn – and had their potential route to the final mapped out.
Champions League round of 16 draw in full:
Club Brugge vs Aston Villa
Borussia Dortmund vs Lille
Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid
Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
PSV vs Arsenal
Feyenoord vs Inter Milan
Paris Saint-Germain vs Liverpool
Benfica vs Barcelona
The final takes place at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena on Saturday 31 May.
