Manchester City flirted with a disastrous exit from the Champions League before rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1 in a must-win game Wednesday and advanced to the knockout phase.
Man City trailed 1-0 at halftime, and sat 26th in the 36-team standings, before the 2023 title-winner was sparked by substitute Savinho to avoid elimination. City finished 22nd.
Paris Saint-Germain also secured its place in the top-24 teams and will enter the knockout playoffs rounds, winning 4-1 at Stuttgart to eliminate the German club.
PSG impressed again after a crucial 4-2 comeback win over Man City one week ago, and rose to 15th place. That puts PSG on a path to meet Liverpool or Barcelona in the round of 16 in March if it wins an all-French playoff against Monaco or Brest.
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich finished outside the top eight despite winning their last games and both must enter a knockout playoffs round over two legs in February. Madrid won 3-0 at Brest and Bayern beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1.
Only the top eight teams go direct to the round of 16 and Bayern finished 10th with defending champion Madrid 11th.
Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid sealed top-eight finishes as expected – joining Liverpool and Barcelona advancing direct to the round of 16 – with low-key wins. Inter beat Monaco 3-0, Arsenal won 2-1 at Girona and Atletico won 4-1 at Salzburg, which had a woeful campaign.
Bayer Leverkusen, Lille – which thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 – and Aston Villa completed the top eight.
Stuttgart dropped to 26th place and was eliminated along with Dinamo Zagreb, despite its 2-1 win over AC Milan. Brugge took the 24th qualification place ahead of Dinamo on the tiebreaker of goal difference.