The Champions League knockout phase playoffs are complete and we now know the 16 teams that will compete for a place in the quarter finals. The draw for the round of 16 will take place on the 27th of February, at which point all six English clubs still in the 2025/26 UCL will find out who they will play.
Those games will take place on the 10th and 11th, and then on the 17th and 18th of March. The last 16 will see a record six English teams involved. Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid came through the playoffs to join Barca in the next round, with Bayer Leverkusen doing likewise to join Bayern as one of two German teams in the round of 16.
PSG scraped through, while Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt, Turkish giants Galatasaray and Sporting Lisbon offer representation to some of the less prestigious leagues around Europe. However, with the Premier League accounting for almost 38% of the final 16, and some further surprise inclusions as detailed above, some clubs must obviously miss out. And it is Serie A sides who have most felt the brunt of that.
It Could Have Been Worse
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β Atalanta B.C. (@Atalanta_BC) February 25, 2026
Ahead of the final batch of playoff games, all the talk was about the chances of us seeing a last 16 in Europeβs top competition without any Italian representation. Inter Milan, running away with the domestic league at present, had been humbled and humiliated by Bodo/Glimt, losing both legs of their playoff against a club based in a town with a population around 2% the size of the Milan metropolitan area.
Napoli had done even worse, finishing 30th in the league phase to earn automatic exit from the competition. That left Juve and Atalanta battling for a spot in the last 16 through the playoffs and both seemed to have mountains to climb. Juventus had been defeated 5-2 in Istanbul by Galatasaray, and Atalanta went down 2-0 in Germany to Borussia Dortmund.
Both were very much up against it, and if neither could overturn their first-leg deficit, Italy would not have a single club through to the last 16. Since this format was introduced, with a round of 16, Serie A has provided three of the final 16 teams 12 times out of 22 seasons. Never in that time had they failed to get at least one club through.
For a proud footballing nation, this was potentially going to be a huge embarrassment. One would have to go all the way back to Napoliβs first-round exit from the 1987/88 European Cup for the last time Serie A had fared so badly (in terms of not making the last 16 or before that, the first knockout stage). With the national side facing a playoff to make the 2026 World Cup, and having failed to qualify for the two previous global showpieces, it is dark times for Italian football. But cometh the hour, cometh Atalanta!
Atalanta Deliver Goods as Juve Exit
Juventus almost scaled their Turkish summit, beating Galatasaray 3-0 in Turin to force extra time. However, the Turks eventually progressed 7-5 on aggregate, scoring two unanswered goals in extra time. This meant that the only side that could save Italian footballβs blushes was Atalanta.
The Bergamo-based outfit, relative minnows of Italian football having never won Serie A and boasting just one Coppa Italia success, were clearly up against it. They won the Europa League in 2023/24 but had sold some of their best players. Moreover, they faced a Borussia Dortmund team that had lost just once in the Bundesliga all term and was far more experienced in this competition. And Atalanta were 2-0 down after the first leg.
Somehow, however, the Italians got the job done. In fact, at one stage, they were making it all look rather easy, scoring after just five minutes through West Ham reject Gianluca Scamacca and then moving 3-0 up with less than an hour on the clock. At that stage, the tie was 3-2 to Atalanta on aggregate, and most viewers would have predicted only one winner.
However, after 75 minutes, German international Karim Adeyemi stunned the home fans, scoring for the visitors to give Dortmund a lifeline. At 3-3, we were all set for extra time as the clash entered just three minutes of added time. And then Atalanta scored in the 98th minute!
How did we reach the 98th minute? A late penalty award after a lengthy VAR check, three red cards and a yellow card after the 96th minute (with three of the cards shown to people not on the pitch!). It was a dramatic end of the highest order, but a satisfying one for Atalanta and, more widely, for Italian football.