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The Champions League has narrowed down to the final 16 teams for the knockout stage, with Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa eagerly awaiting their fate in Friday's draw from Nyon, Switzerland.

Manchester City, the only English team not to make it to the last-16 knockout stages, was ousted by reigning champions Real Madrid, who secured a 6-3 aggregate victory.

The remaining Premier League trio can all look forward to discovering their potential opponents through the revamped Champions League draw for the knockout phase.



How the draw works

Unlike previous editions, the knockout bracket is pre-determined based on a club's final position in the 36-team table.

Under this new format, the draw assigns teams to a position in the bracket to create a fixture, rather than the traditional method of drawing one team against another.

The round-of-16 draw places the top eight teams into one of two potential positions, automatically setting up not only the match-ups but also the complete bracket leading to the final?

Liverpool's name is pulled out during the Champions League draw.

This automatically places the other team in the bottom half against Benfica.

Since there's no specific draw for the quarter-finals or semis, the last-16 draw will dictate which teams could potentially meet on the journey to Munich in June.

Last-16 draw simulated

After applying these rules, our Champions League simulator generated the following last-16 knockout phase draw:

Club Brugge vs Lille

Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen

Feyenoord vs Arsenal

Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid

Benfica vs Barcelona

PSV Eindhoven vs Inter Milan

PSG vs Liverpool

Borussia Dortmund vs Aston Villa

What does it mean for the English teams

The last four could see them pitted against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, PSV or Inter - and many would back the former after they swept past City courtesy of Kylian Mbappe's hat-trick.

However, Unai Emery's squad would first have to defeat Dortmund and then triumph over the winner of the Benfica vs Barcelona game to potentially face his old team Arsenal.

While it's impossible for Arsenal and Aston Villa to meet in the final through this draw, a thrilling showdown with title contenders Liverpool - potentially the first all-English Champions League final since 2018-19 - is one of the possible outcomes.

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story
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