Manchester City’s two possible Champions League last-16 opponents confirmed | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have now found out their potential opponents for the last-16 of this season’s UEFA Champions League.

City’s Champions League league phase was a journey of high-profile triumphs and unexpected setbacks, ultimately ending with a vital eighth-place finish to secure automatic qualification for the Round of 16.

The campaign began in historic fashion as Erling Haaland became the fastest player to reach 50 Champions League goals during a 2–0 win over Napoli, followed by statement victories and most notably a 4–1 dismantling of Borussia Dortmund and 2–1 win over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

However, City also showed their vulnerabilities by dropping points in a 2–2 draw with AS Monaco and suffering a surprising 0–2 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in November as Pep Guardiola heavily rotated his side.

The final weeks of the league phase following a shock 3–1 defeat to Bodø/Glimt in the Arctic Circle, which left City’s top-eight status in serious jeopardy, only for the side to regain composure through a 2–0 final matchday victory over Galatasaray thanks to Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki.

Finishing with 16 points, City edged out Real Madrid by a single point, sparing themselves a gruelling two-legged play-off tie and ensuring they will be seeded for this Friday’s Round of 16 draw.

Now, following results in the last-16 play-off round, Manchester City have found out that they will face either Norway’s Bodo/Glimt or Spain’s Real Madrid across two-legs in the UEFA Champions League’s Round of 16.

Bodø/Glimt eliminated 2025 finalists Inter with a 5–2 aggregate victory, comprising of a 3–1 win at the Aspmyra Stadion, before stunning the Serie A leaders with a 2–1 second-leg triumph in Italy thanks to goals from Jens Petter Hauge and Håkon Evjen.

A decisive mistake by Manuel Akanji allowed Hauge to open the scoring, while a late Alessandro Bastoni consolation was not enough to prevent Bodo/Glimt from becoming the first Norwegian club ever to win a Champions League knockout tie.

As for Real Madrid, they recorded a dramatic 3-1 aggregate victory over Benfica, punctuated by a tense 2–1 second-leg battle at the Bernabéu. Los Blancos’ 1–0 lead from the first leg was momentarily wiped out when Rafa Silva stunned the home crowd in the 14th minute, only for the hosts to immediately respond through Aurelien Tchouameni.

Vinicius Junior would then make it a two-goal advantage on aggregate with a sensational individual effort on 80 minutes, securing qualification into the knockout rounds of Europe’s premier club competition.

The Champions League Round of 16 draw is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 27, 2026 at 11AM GMT at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.

Under the competition’s revamped format, the eight automatic qualifiers – including Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool – will be seeded and paired based on their final league phase rankings to face the eight winners from the knockout play-offs.

The draw will also map out the entire bracket for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, thus enabling teams to discover a potential path all the way to the final at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest.

Crucially, the ‘country protection’ rule no longer applies at this stage of the competition, meaning Premier League rivals like Chelsea and Newcastle could be drawn against one another as early as Friday in the last-16 stage.