The weekend is already off to a busy start with the UEFA Champions League draw for the knockout phase playoffs, and that's before an exciting batch of matches takes place across Europe. I'm Pardeep Cattry with an end-of-week check-in.

The Champions League playoff round has given us some tasty ties, including a meeting of the past two winners, Real Madrid and Man City. Here are our picks to advance to the round of 16.

Liverpool are not in the Champions League draw on Jan. 31 because the Reds automatically qualified for the round of 16. Since Slot's men finished atop the league phase standings, they do not have to participate in the knockout phase playoffs, and are therefore not in the draw.