Man City, PSG Stay Alive in Champions League as Arsenal Reach Last 16
Manchester City came from behind against Club Brugge to reach the Champions League knockout phase, where they were safely joined by Paris Saint-Germain as Arsenal qualified directly for the last 16 on Wednesday in the final round of league-phase matches.
Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa also joined Liverpool and Barcelona in securing top-eight finishes to skip the new play-off round.
On a dramatic night in which only two of the closing 18 games were dead rubbers, Man City got the win they needed to avoid an embarrassing exit with a nervy 3-1 victory over Club Brugge.
PSG, who defeated City 4-2 last week, produced an emphatic display in a 4-1 triumph at Stuttgart.
Arsenal only needed a point to wrap up a last-16 berth and goals from Jorginho and Ethan Nwaneri gave them a 2-1 victory at Girona.
Inter finished fourth in the standings by seeing off 10-man Monaco 3-0, while Atletico made it five straight Champions League wins with a 4-1 thumping of Salzburg in Austria.
Bayer Leverkusen also completed the job, beating Sparta Prague 2-0, as Lille were the only French side to seal a top-eight slot thanks to a 6-1 thrashing of Feyenoord.
Aston Villa snuck into eighth place in their first appearance in the competition in 42 years, as Morgan Rogers’ hat-trick helped them to a 4-2 win over Celtic.
Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, holders Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and AC Milan all ended one point off the top eight.
The new 36-team format provided plenty of tension, but all the fancied sides at least finished in the top 24 to stay in the competition.
A much-changed Liverpool finished top despite losing 3-2 at PSV Eindhoven, as second-placed Barcelona drew 2-2 with Atalanta, who finished an agonising ninth.
