Arsenal will face Girona on Wednesday night as the Champions League's opening league stage comes to a dramatic close with all still to play for.

This year's iteration of Europe's premium cup competition featured an updated format that introduced a 36-club league as opposed to the usual eight groups of four teams.

The London club stand in good stead in the initial league stage, commanding the third spot, which is all but guaranteed to see them fast-tracked to the round of 16. Spanish counterparts Girona are set to see their debut Champions League campaign come to a close as they currently reside in 31st, seven points adrift of the final qualification spot.

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How does the new format work?

The 36-club league has been split into four pots, based on European ecoefficiency rankings, with every team facing two teams from each pot.

Wednesday night will see all 36 sides compete in their final fixture at 8pm to finalise the league standings. The clubs finishing in the top eight spots will advance to the round of 16.

Teams ranked from ninth to 24th in the table will be entered into a knockout play-off to determine who else enters the last 16. They will compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their spot.

From the knockout phase play-offs onwards, the tournament is a bracket. The teams that finish the league phase between ninth and 16th will be seeded for the first draw for the knockout phase and will face a team placed 17th to 24th. The seeded team will, in principle, play the return leg at home.

How do the standings currently look?

Right now, only Liverpool have a guaranteed spot in the automatic qualification spots, with the remaining seven and 16 play-off positions still up for grabs. These are the clubs who currently reside inside the top eight:

Liverpool - 21 points

Barcelona - 18 points

Arsenal - 16 points

Inter Milan - 16 points

Atletico Madrid - 15 points

AC Milan - 15 points

Atalanta - 14 points

Bayer Leverkusen - 13 points

These are the clubs who are currently placed between ninth and 24th:

Aston Villa - 13 points

Monaco - 13 points

Feyenoord - 13 points

Lille - 13 points

Brest - 13 points

Borussia Dortmund - 12 points

Bayern Munich - 12 points

Real Madrid - 12 points

Juventus - 12 points

Celtic - 12 points

PSV - 11 points

Club Brugge - 11 points

Benfica - 10 points

PSG - 10 points

Sporting - 10 points

Stuggart - 10 points

When is the draw for the play-off round and round of 16?

The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off draw takes place from 11am on January 31. The fixtures will be played over the course of two weeks with the first legs kicking off on February 11 / 12 and the return legs taking place on February 18 / 19.

The winners of the play-offs will then be added to the last 16 draw, alongside the league phase's top eight teams, which will be held on February 21.

The last 16 first legs are scheduled to be played on March 4 / 5 and the second legs will be played on March 11 / 12.