Champions League 2025-2026: Final overall standings and teams qualified for the round of 16 The group stage of the UEFA Champions League concluded on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, following the matches of the eighth and final matchday of the season.

Who have already qualified? Which clubs can still automatically progress to the knockouts on the final day? How do the play-offs work again?

Only 24 teams survived an action-packed league phase.

A few weeks after his stunning victory at the Estadio Da Luz, Jose Mourinho will be reunited with his former club Real Madrid in the Champions League after Benfica were handed a knockout playoff against the 15-time champions.

Real Madrid dropped out of the top eight after losing 4-2 to Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, whose goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored a stoppage-time goal that secured the Portuguese side the final spot in the play-offs on goal difference at the expense of Marseille.

The new format of the UEFA Champions League has given rise to a new form of scoreboard watching that fans have begun to absorb on the final day of league-phase action.