When is the Champions League last-16 draw? Date, start time and how to watch | OneFootball

The draw for the last 16 of the Champions League will take place at Uefa headquarters this Friday, after the conclusion of eight intriguing play-off ties in midweek.

Europe’s most prestigious cup competition sees the end of the inaugural knockout play-off round on Wednesday, with Manchester City looking to overturn a 3-2 deficit away to Real Madrid in the pick of the games.

Celtic will look to recover from their own one-goal deficit away at Bayern, with all but two of the ties having just one goal in them ahead of the second legs.

Friday’s draw for the round of 16 will see Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and the rest of the top eight sides learn their potential routes to the final, as the business end of the competition begins in earnest in March.

When is the draw for the Champions League last 16?

The draw for the next rounds of the Champions League takes place at 11am GMT on Friday, 21 February at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.

How can I watch it?

The draw will be streamed live on Uefa’s website. You can also follow dedicated coverage on The Independent’s live blog on the day.

Which teams have qualified?

The teams who finished in the top eight of the competition's new league phase table automatically qualified for the last 16.

The eight teams who have already qualified are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa.

According to the new rules, these sides were all placed into seeded pairs ahead of the round of 16, and will all play the second legs of their ties at home.

The seeded pairs consisted of the teams in first and second, third and fourth, fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth – for example, Liverpool and Barcelona are one seeded pair, and so on.

The seeding is also relevant for the last 16 as it determines which of two opponents the club will be drawn against. For example, the first seeds will face the winners of the knockout phase play-off ties involving the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th-placed teams.

To that end, Liverpool and Barcelona will face the two winners of the matches involving PSG, Benfica, Monaco and Brest – what the draw does is simply decide exactly which of the two teams faces who.

Who else could be in the draw?

There will obviously be another eight sides in the draw for the round of 16, and these will be the eight sides who are victorious in the knockout round play-off ties.

The second legs of those ties happen this week, with the first four taking place today.

Here are the scores across those eight matches going into the second leg:

AC Milan 0-1 Feyenoord

Benfica 1-0 Monaco

Atalanta 1-2 Club Brugge

Bayern Munich 2-1 Celtic

Dortmund 3-0 Sporting CP

Real Madrid 3-2 Man City

PSG 3-0 Brest

PSV 1-2 Juventus

Why is the draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals also happening?

From the knockout play-offs onwards the tournament is a bracket, so potential opponents in the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals were also pre-determined by pairings that were set according to league positions.

Once again, the bracket was set after the end of the league phase, so teams already know potential opponents.

In this case, the draw is only made to determine the order of the matches (i.e. who plays at home in each leg).

When are the next rounds played?

The last-16 ties will be played across the weeks of 4/5 and 11/12 March.

The round after that is the quarter-finals, which are played in April, with the semi-finals taking place in late April and early May.

This season, the final will be held on 31 May 2025, at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena.

The full dates for the next round are as follows:

Final: 31 May 2025