Man City, PSG stay alive in Champions League

Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa also joined Liverpool and Barcelona in securing top-eight finishes to skip the new play-off round.

On a dramatic night in which only two of the closing 18 games were dead rubbers, Man City got the win they needed to avoid an embarrassing exit with a nervy 3-1 victory over Club Brugge.

PSG, who defeated City 4-2 last week, produced an emphatic display in a 4-1 triumph at Stuttgart.

Arsenal only needed a point to wrap up a last-16 berth and goals from Jorginho and Ethan Nwaneri gave them a 2-1 victory at Girona.

Inter finished fourth in the standings by seeing off 10-man Monaco 3-0, while Atletico made it five straight Champions League wins with a 4-1 thumping of Salzburg in Austria.

Bayer Leverkusen also completed the job, beating Sparta Prague 2-0, as Lille were the only French side to seal a top-eight slot thanks to a 6-1 thrashing of Feyenoord.

Aston Villa snuck into eighth place in their first appearance in the competition in 42 years, as Morgan Rogers' hat-trick helped them to a 4-2 win over Celtic.

Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, holders Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and AC Milan all ended one point off the top eight.

The new 36-team format provided plenty of tension, but all the fancied sides at least finished in the top 24 to stay in the competition.

A much-changed Liverpool finished top despite losing 3-2 at PSV Eindhoven, as second-placed Barcelona drew 2-2 with Atalanta, who finished an agonising ninth.