The Champions League play-offs have kicked off this week and fortunately don't include Barcelona as Hansi Flick's side made it safely through to the knockout stages of the 2025-26 Champions League by finishing fifth in the standings, behind Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Tottenham. Chelsea, Sporting and Manchester City were the three other teams to seal automatic promotion and so have avoided having to go into a two-legged play-off to reach the next round of Europe's top club competition.