The spotlight is back on the UEFA Champions League as the new-style knockout play-off round reaches its decisive second legs. For fans in the US, that means afternoon kickoffs, tight scorelines, and a lot of remote grabbing between work calls.
This week’s games decide which clubs complete the round of 16 bracket and join the eight heavyweights that already punched their ticket from the league phase. The margin for error is tiny. One bad half and a season’s worth of work is gone.
Why the Champions League Structure Changed and How It Affects the Knockouts
Under the revamped format, 36 clubs play a single “league phase” instead of the old eight-group layout. Each team plays eight games, four at home and four away, against eight different opponents.
After that table is complete, the top eight go straight into the round of 16. Teams that finish from 9th to 24th drop into the current knockout play-off round, which is played over two legs in February. The bottom twelve are out of Europe with no safety net in the Europa League.
For 2025–26, the direct qualifiers already waiting in the round of 16 are some of the biggest names in the sport: Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern München, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Sporting CP, and Tottenham Hotspur. These eight will be seeded when the round of 16 draw is made.
Everyone else is fighting through these playoffs to join them.
Today’s Champions League Playoff Ties and Who Is Close to the Last 16
The knockout play-offs are set across two legs, with first legs played on February 17 and 18 and the return legs on February 24 and 25. The sixteen teams in this round are split into seeded and unseeded sides based on their league phase positions.
Seeded clubs include Real Madrid, Inter, Paris, Newcastle United, Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Atalanta, and Bayer Leverkusen. Unseeded opponents include Borussia Dortmund, Olympiacos, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Monaco, Qarabağ, Bodø/Glimt, and Benfica.
One major story already locked in is Atlético’s surge into the last 16. Earlier today, they beat Club Brugge 4–1 in Madrid, turning a tight tie into a 7–4 aggregate win, driven by a hat trick from their Norwegian striker. That result books their place in the next round, where the club itself notes that they expect to face either Liverpool or Tottenham once the draw is made in Nyon on Friday.
Elsewhere, live coverage on UEFA’s match center shows three more second legs being played today: Inter hosting Bodø/Glimt in Milan, Leverkusen against Olympiacos in Germany, and Newcastle welcoming Qarabağ to St James’ Park.
Inter are trying to come back from a first-leg deficit, Leverkusen are defending a two-goal advantage, and Newcastle have extended their lead to put one foot in the next round.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, US attention will swing to two huge second legs that both kick off in the US afternoon. At the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid hosts Benfica in a tie loaded with tension on and off the field.
Madrid carries a 1–0 advantage from the first game in Lisbon, a match that included a ten minute stoppage under UEFA’s anti racism protocol and a red card for Benfica coach José Mourinho. The second leg starts at 3:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. Pacific, with the winner set to face either Sporting CP or Manchester City in the round of 16.
At the same time in Turin, Juventus faces Galatasaray, needing something close to a perfect night. The Turkish side won the first leg 5–2, so the Italian giants must overturn a three-goal gap in the Allianz Stadium return. That second leg is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. UTC, which also lines up at 3:00 p.m. Eastern / 12:00 p.m. Pacific for viewers in the US.
Those two games sit alongside Paris vs Monaco and Atalanta vs Dortmund, where Paris and Dortmund each bring a one-goal lead into their own second legs.
Where to Watch Every Champions League Game in the US
For viewers in the United States, Champions League rights are held by CBS Sports and TelevisaUnivision for the current cycle, with most English-language coverage available to stream on Paramount+. Spanish language coverage typically appears across Univision-owned platforms such as TUDN and ViX, depending on the match and your TV package.
Guides for individual fixtures confirm that Real Madrid vs Benfica is listed at 3:00 p.m. ET for US audiences, with legal streams on Paramount+ and other official partners, while Juventus vs Galatasaray shares the same US kickoff time and is carried on CBS Sports Network and Paramount+ in many listings. If you are unsure which channel has a specific game, UEFA’s “Where to watch” page and local listings are the safest way to confirm the exact broadcaster in your area before kickoff.
With the new format, every one of these playoff ties carries real weight. Win this week, and your club joins the seeded elite in a classic round of 16 bracket. Lose, and there is no drop-down into another European competition. For US fans, that makes these afternoon windows some of the highest stakes soccer viewing of the season.
