LONDON: Manchester City stuttered through into the playoff round of the UEFA Champions League, recovering from patchy form and results to edge Club Brugge 3-1 at home. Liverpool topped the group despite a 3-2 defeat by PSV Eindhoven.

Manager Pep Guardiola’s men trailed 1-0 at halftime and facing elimination before the 2023 champions were spark back into command with an equaliser from Mateo Kovacic and later a fine goal by substitute Savinho.

Paris Saint-Germain also secured their place in the top 24 by winning 4-1 at Stuttgart to eliminate the German club.

PSG impressed again after a crucial 4-2 comeback win over City one week ago and rose to 15th place. That put them on course to face Liverpool or Barcelona in the round of 16 in March if they win an all-French playoff against Monaco or Brest.

Holders Real Madrid and Bayern Munich finished outside the top eight despite winning their last games and both must enter a knockout playoffs round over two legs in February. Madrid won 3-0 at Brest and Bayern beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1.

Only the top eight teams go directly to the round of 16 and Bayern finished 10th with defending champion Madrid 11th.

Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid sealed top-eight finishes as expected — joining Liverpool and Barcelona advancing directly to the round of 16 – 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 — who thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 — and Aston Villa completed the top eight.

Stuttgart dropped to 26th place and were eliminated along with Dinamo Zagreb, despite their 2-1 win over AC Milan. Brugge took the 24th qualification place ahead of Dinamo on the tiebreaker of goal difference.

The draw

The draw for the knockout phase play-offs will take place on Friday at 11am and will feature the 16 clubs who finished between ninth and 24th in the table.

The teams who finished ninth and tenth will face those who came 23rd and 24th (either way round, to be determined by the draw); the 11th and 12th teams will meet those in 21st and 22nd and so on.

Teams from the same country can meet, as can those who played each other in the league phase. Matches will be played on February 11-12 and 18-19.

The draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on February 21, so teams will know their potential paths to the final at that point.

The draw will be influenced by finishing positions within the top eight: the top two will be kept apart before the final, while those in the top four cannot face another top-four finisher until the semi-finals. The final will be played at Munich’s Allianz Arena on May 31.

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