Manchester City battle back to advance in Champions League, PSG also reach knockouts

City finished 22nd but relief turns to the realisation that its playoff round opponent will be either Madrid or Bayern, which slotted into the bracket possibilities in, respectively, 11th and 12th place

Geneva: Manchester City stayed in the Champions League, barely. Paris Saint-Germain saved its elite status in style.

Both had risked embarrassing exits before winning on Wednesday, grateful to be among the 24 teams in the knockout stage. In the new playoffs-round draw on Friday, they will also find defending champion Real Madrid or Bayern Munich who finished in mid-table after the 36-team standings was finalized.

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City flirted with a disaster before rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1 in a must-win game. Trailing 1-0 at halftime, and then sitting 26th in the live standings, the 2023 title-winner was sparked by substitute Savinho to avoid elimination.

“In the second half we let our souls and hearts free,” said City manager Pep Guardiola, who had an anguished evening on the sidelines and was shown a yellow card.

City finished 22nd but relief turns to the realisation that its playoff round opponent will be either Madrid or Bayern, which slotted into the bracket possibilities in, respectively, 11th and 12th place. PSG started play in 22nd before cruising to a 4-1 win at Stuttgart, fired by Ousmane Dembélé’s hat trick, that eliminated the German club.

The French champion impressed again after a crucial 4-2 comeback win over Man City one week ago and rose to 15th place. Still, that puts PSG on a path to meet either Liverpool or Barcelona in the round of 16 in March if it wins an all-French playoff against either Monaco or Brest.

Liverpool topped the standings despite a 3-2 loss with a weakened team at PSV Eindhoven, and Barcelona ended runner-up after a 2-2 draw with Atalanta. Only the top eight teams go direct to the round of 16 and that excludes Madrid, which won 3-0 at Brest, and Bayern, a 3-1 winner against Slovan Bratislava.

Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid sealed top-eight finishes as expected with low-key wins. Inter beat Monaco 3-0, Arsenal won 2-1 at Girona and Atletico won 4-1 at Salzburg, which had a woeful campaign.

Bayer Leverkusen, Lille — which thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 — and Aston Villa completed the top eight. Stuttgart dropped to 26th place and was eliminated along with Dinamo Zagreb, despite its 2-1 win over AC Milan whose United States playmaker Christian Pulisic had leveled the game. Milan can face Juventus in the playoff round.

Brugge took the 24th qualification place ahead of Dinamo on the tiebreaker of goal difference. An unprecedented Champions League night of 18 games playing at the same time — completing the new 144-game opening phase format – ended with no shock exits though final standings that defied expectations.

Three English teams finished in the top eight but not Man City. Two Spanish teams finished in the top eight but not Real Madrid. The one German team in the top eight is not Bayern, and the one French team is not PSG.

Those four wealthy powers of European soccer found the new eight-game format trickier than expected. They now have the burden of two extra games on back-to-back midweeks in February to earn round of 16 places that were routine in the old group-stage format.

Villa joined Liverpool and Arsenal in the top eight by beating Celtic 4-2 to rise to 16 points — the cut that meant avoiding the playoffs. UEFA’s preseason prediction of eight points to enter the knockout phase proved far off the mark.

Dinamo got 11 points and still was eliminated, ensuring no team from eastern Europe will be in the knockout phase. The lowest-ranked country in Friday’s playoffs round draw is Scotland, whose champion Celtic finished 21st, one place and one point above Man City.