The Champions League league phase is nearing its conclusion as teams, players and fans all around the world prepare for the next stage of competition.

Friday morning, UEFA conducted the draw for the Champion League's new playoff phase, which essentially adds one more round to the previous format's knockout stage. 16 teams were sorted, with pairings influenced (but not entirely determined) by order of finish in the group stage.

It will be an unprecedented Champions League's Matchday 8 as all the teams will be playing at the same time on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Pep Guardiola's Manchester City need to win in their last tie of the league phase to avoid the elimination from the tournament,

The Champions League round of 16 begins on Tuesday, Mar. 4. The eight victorious teams from the knockout phase playoffs will join the eight automatically qualified teams in the round of 16. The full bracket for the round of 16 will not be revealed until the next Champions League draw on Feb. 21.

Draw made Friday for the knockout playoffs round in the UEFA Champions League: Paris Saint-Germain (France) vs. Brest (France) — winner will play Liverpool or Barcelona Benfica (Portugal) vs. Monaco (

Under the new structure, the top eight teams advance directly to the Round of 16 and those sides ranked 9th through 24th will enter a play-off round, while those in 25th or lower are eliminated from the competition.