Champions League round of 16 draw Seedings, date, time

Due to a tournament that took place in Qatar over the course of a month and resulted in Argentina’s victory under the command of Leo Messi to claim the title of world champions for the third time in their history, the return of the Champions League will not take place until the middle of February. 

In the round of 16, also known as the first knockout round, the remaining sixteen teams will compete against one another to decide which team will advance to the subsequent round. This part of the tournament is known for having an extraordinarily high degree of difficulty in comparison to the rest of it. Every club that qualified from the group stage will have the same objective in mind, which is to attain the same level of success as Real Madrid and go all the way to the final, which will be played in Istanbul on June 10th. This ambition is the same for every team that entered the competition. When they join the tournament, all of the teams will have this objective as their primary focus.

After the round of 16, there will be another draw to determine who will play each other in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, respectively. The team that comes out on top in this draw will advance to the next round of the tournament. As soon as the previous round, which included 16 teams, is over, the draw for this round will take place.

This will be done in order to make the final draw, which will be used to decide who the winner of the cup with the “Big Ears” will be. 

All dates of the Champions League

Round of 16
Paris Saint-Germain vs. Bayern Munich: Tuesday, February 14 at 21:00
Milan vs. Tottenham: Tuesday, February 14th, 21.00
Club Brugge vs. Benfica: Wednesday, February 15 at 21:00
Borussia Dortmund vs. Chelsea: Wednesday, February 15 at 21:00
Real Madrid vs. Liverpool: Tuesday, February 21 at 21:00
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Naples: Tuesday, February 21 at 21:00
Leipzig vs. Manchester City: Wednesday, February 22 at 21:00
Inter vs. Porto: Wednesday, February 22 at 21:00

Quarter-final and semi-final draw
November 7, 2022, in Nyon

Quarter finals
1st match: April 11 and 12, 2023
2nd match: April 18 and 19, 2023

Semifinals
1st match: May 9 and 10, 2023
2nd match: May 16-17, 2023

The final
June 10, 2023 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul

Champions League regulation 2022-2023: the news and the rules to remember

Since the 2018–19 season, the number of important teams competing in Europe’s most prestigious club competition has been four. This is only the first of many innovations that have been introduced in the Champions League starting with the 2018–19 season. The main change concerned the team qualification system: the first 4 classified in the championships of the four most important football federations in the UEFA ranking (Liga, Bundesliga, Premier League, and Serie A) have the opportunity to access the Champions League without going through the preliminaries. There will be a total of 26 clubs that will obtain direct access to the group stage, namely: the reigning Champions League and Europa League champions; the first 4 of the championships just mentioned; the first 2 classified in the 5th and 6th places of the ranking (national championships); and the national champions of the associations from the 7th to the 10th place in the ranking.

Important: If the holders of the Champions League also qualify for the group stage through their own league, the vacant place will go to the reigning champions of the 11th federation in the UEFA rankings. If the holders of the Europa League also qualify for the Champions League through excellent positioning in their league, the vacant place will go to the third-placed Ligue 1. The remaining 6 places will be assigned through the qualifying rounds, which in the current year envision a “champion path” and a “manager path.”

Champions League 2022/23 match times: The other change concerns the schedule of the Champions League: starting with the 2018/2019 season, in the group stage only, it was decided to play in two distinct time slots, i.e., at 6.45 p.m. and 9 p.m.

VAR-Champions League: Starting from the round of 16 of the 2018–19 season, Var was officially introduced in the Champions League. It is also present in the following editions, starting from the group stage.