European playoff draws due to begin at 11am (GMT)Ten things to look out for this weekend | Mail Simon Uefa are still preambling. I have learned that one side of the draw will be silver and the other side will be blue. Uefa are going big on the preambles here, so I’ve got time to remind you of the basic rules. There are eight seeded teams and eight unseeded teams. The two seeded teams with the highest league finish will be drawn against the two unseeded teams with the lowest league finish and so on, until everyone’s paired up. So Atalanta will play Sporting or Brugge, and Borussia Dortmund will play the other one, while PSG will play Monaco or Brest and Benfica will get the other one. You can play teams from your own country, and teams you played in the group. Got it? Great. Continue reading...

Micah Richards has revealed that Luis Enrique was left unhappy with him during last season's Champions League when the pundit favoured Barcelona to beat his PSG side in the quarter-finals

Emery trying to bring PSG forward Asensio to VillaBrighton turn down £54.4m Al-Nassr offer for winger Aston Villa are weighing up a move for Matheus Cunha with Jhon Durán expected to finalise his transfer to Al-Nassr on Thursday, though they also want to sign a striker to support the Arsenal target Ollie Watkins. Wolves, who host Villa on Saturday, are adamant they will not countenance selling Cunha given the forward is a key player in their fight to avoid relegation and are hopeful the Brazilian will sign a new contract. Villa are also exploring alternatives, including a more like-for-like Durán replacement, but have no desire to sell Watkins, the subject of a bid worth about £60m from Arsenal. Continue reading...

Premier League clubs once again dominated transfer spending in 2024 as Manchester United spent more on transfer fees than anyone but Paris Saint-Germain to sign the likes of Manuel Ugarte

Ousmane Dembele's hat-trick helps Paris St-Germain into the Champions League play-offs in a 4-1 win over Stuttgart, eliminating the German side in the process on matchday eight of the group phase at the MHP Arena.

If Stuttgart would have settled for a biscotto, they ended up with a soggy mush. A point apiece would have sent both them and Paris Saint-Germain through but this was nothing like the kind of measured, agreeable affair that would have satisfied everyone. PSG did not so much reach for the safety net of a playoff spot as fling themselves into it gleefully, producing their second free-flowing, fleet-footed display in a week to make nonsense of suggestions they would be the biggest gun to fall at this hurdle. Continue reading...

Aston Villa had done their bit, albeit not without a struggle, and now all they could do was wait. Morgan Rogers, fresh from completing his hat-trick in stoppage time, was among the Villa players huddled around the phone of fitness coach Moisés Del Hoyo praying Atalanta would not find a winner in Barcelona and divert Villa’s course. Everyone was jostling for a view. With the final whistle looming here, Unai Emery was busy relaying the latest to Leon Bailey, explaining how Villa would have to settle for a playoff next month if the Serie A side scored. Just as everybody had got to grips with the small print of the permutations, au fait with others’ goal difference, Villa Park released a communal cheer and the players dispersed. Villa had secured a place in the top eight and succeeded where Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Milan and Paris Saint-Germain had failed. Continue reading...

PSV 3-2 LIVERPOOL: The Reds still finished top of the table ahead of Barcelona and will play either Brest, Monaco, PSG or Benfica - with those four teams forced to take part in the play-offs - in the last-16