It will be interesting to see how the final 2-3 matches pan out but there should be no way we'll concede top place from here with Lille and PSV our last two matches.
Liverpool will enter the last-16 draw as one of the seeded teams and face one of the winning teams that make it through the play-offs. The finishing positions in the table determine the seeding position and each club’s path through the knockout rounds. In theory, the higher a team finishes in the league phase ranking, the less likely they are to face their closest rivals from the league phase.
However, there are no extra benefits when it comes to facing teams coming through the play-off round meaning that Liverpool could be drawn against 15x champions Real Madrid if the La Liga champions fail to finish inside the top eight.
Remember that :
- A top 16 team can't meet another top 16 team in the playoffs
- A top 8 team won't face another top 8 team in the RO16
- A top 4 team will avoid the other top 4 teams until semi-finals
- The only game where the #1 and the #2 teams could meet is at the final
The draw for the Champions League last-16, as well as the rest of the knockout rounds, takes place on February 21 2025, after the conclusion of the play-off phase.
REMAINING MATCHES
LFC : (H) Lille, (A) PSV
City : (A) Juve, (A) PSG, (H) Brugge
Arsenal : (H) Monaco, (H) Zagreb, (A) Girona
Villa : (A) Monaco, (H) Celtic
Real Madrid : (H) RB Salzburg, (A) Brest,
So clearly Arsenal will make the Top 8. City however have a real fight on their hands ! Highly likely Barca, Bayern, Inter and Leverkusen will also make Top 8 so we'll avoid any chance of meeting them in the Last 16. It is also highly unlikely Real can make Top 8 from here and almost certainly neither Juve nor PSG can. Those 3 could be (dangerous) wild cards for the Last 16.
2024–25 season, the distribution of the prize money is as follows (rough calculation, we are guaranteed at least £38m so far, that's a long way towards buying Zubi or A.N.Other in January, especially if we make the last 8 and another £10.6m) :
Stage + Prize Money
League phase qualification
£15.7m ($20.7m) League-phase draw
£590,000 ($780,000) League-phase win
£1.8m ($2.3m) Top-eight league-phase finish
£1.7m ($2.2m) Ninth to 16th league-phase finish
£0.9m ($1.1m) Round of 16
£9.3m ($12.2m) Quarter-final
£10.6m ($13.9m) Semi-final
£12.7m ($16.7m) Runner-up
£15.6m ($20.6m) Final
£21.1m ($27.8m)
