Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa’s Champions League path clearer with play-off results

The trio of Premier League teams who have already secured their place in the last 16 of the Champions League is a step closer to discover their next opponents.

Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool all ended in the top eight of this year's new look competition to avoid the play-off round, including Bayern Munich, Celtic and Manchester City.

All three teams received four potential opponents at the end of the group stage. And with the first round of play-off fixtures that have now been done and sprinkled, that figure has now fallen to three.

Here, Spiegelvoetbal is the state of the game completed prior to the matches of Wednesday evening, making the photo even clearer …

AC Milan was the first team of the night that falls: they were beaten 2-1 by Feyenoord, who set up a potential meeting with Arsenal of Inter in the next round.

Club Brugge could have confronted Aston Villa after eliminating Atalanta thanks to an excellent 3-1 victory away from home, while Benfica's reward for performing as Monaco in a thriller is a match against Liverpool or Barcelona.

Celtic was painfully close to bringing Bayern Munich to extra time in their attempt to make progress. But Alphonso Davies scored in the 94th minute to break Celtic's hearts.

The field will be shortened even further on Wednesday evening when another eight teams fight for a place in the next round, including Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola's side to the Bernabeu and has to destroy a 3-2 deficit from their first leg loss at home to Real Madrid. Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain will also be in action.

Permutations for top eight

Liverpool and Barcelona: play one of Brest, PSG or Benfica.

Arsenal and Inter: plays one of PSV, Feyenoord or Juventus.

Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen: play one of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Manchester City.

Lille and Aston Villa: play one of Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon or Club Brugge.

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