THE brand new Champions League league phase is over and we now know who will be facing who in the next round.

All four of the English clubs have managed to advance from the first round with Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa booking their place in the last 16 without the need for a play

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Liverpool have finished top of the Champions League league phase[/caption]

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Arsenal have secured automatic qualification to the last 16 with a top eight finish[/caption]

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Aston Villa have snuck into the top eight and guaranteed a place in the last 16 too[/caption]

Manchester City, however, will have a huge challenge as they will face on one of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in a play-off round in February to try and earn a spot in the last 16 proper.

Pep Guardiola’s side will learn which of those two teams they face in a draw taking place on January 31.

The Cityzens narrowly squeezed into the play-offs with a 3-1 comeback win over Club Brugge that pushed them into 22nd

Arsenal, Liverpool and Villa will all have to wait to find out who advances to the last 16 from the play-off round to discover their opponents for their clashes.

But until then, the final league table allows us to look at the four potential opponents each side would face.

Arsenal’s 3rd placed finish means they will face one of AC Milan, Juventus, PSV or Feyenoord in a tricky tie..

While Liverpool’s second placed finish hasn’t done them a huge favour as they could still take on PSG, Benfica, AS Monaco or Brest in the last 16.

For Villa, they snuck into the top eight by the skin of their teeth in 8th place.

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Manchester City pulled off a comeback win to squeeze into the play-offs[/caption]

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Their lower finish means they will face higher-seeded sides, and in this instance that will be one of Atalanta, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon or Club Brugge.

Man City know their route too, which means if they do advance past Bayern or Real Madrid in the play-offs, then they will face either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16.

The overly complicated format, also known as the Swiss model, has thrown up some other potential heavyweight clashes across the competition.

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A MUM has been dubbed the real life ’50 first dates’ after a brain injury led her to forget her partner and barely recognise her own daughter.

Nesh Pillay, 33, suffered a brain injury when she was just nine after she was in a car crash in South Africa.

TikTok/@pillay.nesh

Nesh forgot who her partner was after suffering form multiple concussions[/caption]

TikTok/@pillay.nesh

As a result, she suffered from other concussions throughout her life, with the effects getting worse every time.

In 2022, Nesh, who lives in Toronto, Canada, had another bump on the head and when she woke up, suffered a bout of severe memory loss, even forgetting that she had a partner, Johannes Jakope, and six-year-old daughter.

“I reportedly was very confused and didn’t know what was going on,” Nesh explained to Newsweek.

“Then over the course of a couple of hours, I lost my memory. By that evening I didn’t know who my partner was. I didn’t know much about my daughter. That’s so difficult.”

Nesh was taken to the hospital as she was in a constant state of panic about where she was and who she was with.

In fact, when she woke up, she thought her partner, now husband, was her Uber driver.

Her partner regularly filmed their interactions as evidence for her memory loss as some doctors failed to believe it was from a brain injury.

In one clip, she asked him, “Are you the Uber?” “I’m your boyfriend,” he responded.

“Oh, no, my mom’s going to be so mad,” she says, adding that she “can’t have a boyfriend.”

During her three-day stay in the hospital, the five psychiatrists who assessed her confirmed the issue was not psychological and she was finally approved to see a neurologist.

“He said the thing that I think a lot of doctors are afraid to say which is, ‘I don’t know,’” she recalled to Newsweek. “It was nice to hear that because at least I wasn’t being gaslit.”

As a result, family members had to be with Nesh all the time – even while she showered – as she would forget what she was doing and where she was.

Nesh has since been in and out of hospitals and sharing her recovery on TikTok.

Despite forgetting much of her previous life, Nesh and Johannes are still together as he helps nurse her back to health and got married last year.

“It was a really difficult thing to get through,” she said to Caters, noting the strain her injuries have had on their relationship. 

“[Jakope] has been so patient with me throughout my entire recovery,” Pillay added.

“His constant love and support throughout this time have culminated in me falling in love with him again, and our engagement.”

The pair have now also welcomed their second child into the world.

During her memory loss, Nesh says while she didn’t recognise her daughter as hers, her maternal instinct never left.

She said: “Whenever my memory would reset once a minute, I often found myself in a panic over the wellbeing of a child.”

“The fear for her wellbeing was often so intense I couldn’t sleep at night.”

Her journey on TikTok has filled people with hope, and now Nesh has her own documentary, 50k First Dates, coming out on Amazon Prime to show her full journey on February 11.

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THEY were putting out fires inside and outside the Etihad last night. 

First, a merchandise stall on the stadium’s perimeter burst into flames. 

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Man City scraped through to the qualification rounds[/caption]

Then, Pep Guardiola’s men appeared to be torching their European hopes before they rescued themselves from the humiliation of a group-stage Champions League.  

Guardiola had been fretting manically on the touchline as City trailed to a first-half strike from Raphael Onyedika.

The City boss was scratching his head, kicking drinks boxes, slipping in his technical area and being booked for yelling at the ref. 

Yet he got his half-time substitution bang on. Savinho arrived in place of Ilkay Gundogan and the Brazilian scored the killer third after helping to set up the second. 

Heaven knows how City ended up in this situation – needing to defeat Bruges in order to finish in the top 24 and scrape into the play-off round.

The new Champions League format makes it nigh-on impossible for Europe’s grandest clubs to fall at the first hurdle. 

But the 2023 champions flirted with the unthinkable after a run of just one point from their previous four matches in the competition.

As it stands, they face a two-legged play-off next month against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich – to be decided on Friday – for a place in the last 16.

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While City’s domestic form had turned a corner, their extraordinary capitulation at Paris St Germain a fortnight ago meant they had taken just one point from their previous four Champions League – leaving them in this tight corner. 

City have reached the knock-out round in every season under Guardiola but here they were facing a win-or-bust scenario.

Still, they were unbeaten at home in Europe in seven years and despite their first-half travails, they live to fight another day.  

The fire brigade had been called out two hours before kick-off when a merchandise kiosk caught ablaze just as City were about to parade their January signings on a stage outside the stadium. 

Those new boys weren’t eligible for this match, leaving an inexperienced City bench.

John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne returned to the starting line-up after missing out for the 3-1 win over Chelsea. 

For Stones it was a first stage of 2015 and he was Beckenbauering about the place, frequently popping up in advanced midfield positions. 

Still, it was Brugge who threatened first when Matheus Nunes allowed a long ball to sail over his head, leaving Christos Tzolis bearing down on goal, yet the Greek forward took a bad touch and the danger was averted.

City were bossing possession, naturally, but it was anxious stuff, hot-potato passing. 

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Raphael Nwadike ave Brugge a shock lead[/caption]

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City faced an embarrassing exit[/caption]

Phil Foden – playing on the left despite having moaned about playing on the left – flashed a shot wide from out wide.

Ilkay Gundogan steered a shot inside the far post, only to have been spotted offside from a Bernardo Silva pass.

Haaland tried to nod across goal when he ought to have gone for goal, then the Norwegian released De Bruyne who blazed over when the De Bruyne of old would have slotted home.  

When Guardiola himself slipped and fell while trying to retrieve a ball from the Bruges technical area, it seemed to sum up City’s collective lack of cool. 

The Belgian side had been well organised in defence, threatening occasionally on the break without picking the correct final pass. 

That was until the 44th minute, when Ferran Jutgla kippered the struggling Nunes down the left and squared for Raphael Onyedika to thump past Ederson.   

The Etihad was stunned into silence save for the band of Brugge supporters who descended into rapture and enquired of City, in perfect English, ‘who the f***ing hell are you? 

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Mateo Kovacic got City back in the game[/caption]

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Kovacic kickstarted the fightback[/caption]

Guardiola responded with positivity at half-time, sending on winger Savinho for Gundogan. 

And City were straight at it, Stones heading narrowly wide from a De Bruyne cross before the equaliser arrived.  

This was all about Kovacic – the man filling in for Ballon d’Or man Rodri.

The Croatian picked up possession on the halfway line and motored upfield to the edge of the box before he steered his shot through the legs of a defender and past Simon Mignolet, who ought to have done better.

There were some scruffy moments before City took the lead – Guardiola was booked for charging down the touchline to remonstrate after the referee played an advantage and City squandered it.

Then Tzolis saw one shot saved by Ederson and fired another one just wide.   

But after De Bruyne dragged a close-range effort horribly wide, City were in front. 

Savinho played a sweet pass to release Josko Gvardiol, whose low centre was turned into his own net by Joel Ordonez.

Ederson made a smart stop to deny Chemsdine Talbi shot – but Savinho was instrumental as City settled the match.

First the Brazilian had a shot cleared brilliantly off the line by the masked defender Brandon Mechele off the line. 

Then came the killer third – a cute diagonal pass from Stones which Savinho chested down and drilled past Mignolet, who provided a weak hand and was beaten at his near post. 

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Brugge’s goalkeeper Joel Ordonez failed to keep City out[/caption]

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Josko Gvardiol took the spoils[/caption]

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Savinho wrapped up the win[/caption]

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The Etihad stadium breathed a sigh of relief[/caption]

THE NHS is hiring diversity staff at a rate of one a week despite orders to cutback on the initiatives.

At least 35 equality, diversity and inclusion opportunities have been posted since ­Labour took power.

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The NHS is hiring diversity staff at a rate of one a week despite orders to cutback on the initiatives[/caption]

Salaries reach up to £90,000 and most offer working from home, analysis of job ads showed.

It came as NHS finance chief Julian Kelly told MPs the £10billion cash boost for the health service would be mostly swallowed up by pay rises and tax rises.

Tory health secretaries tried for years to curb spending on diversity initiatives.

MP Steve Barclay said: “NHS EDI roles don’t represent value for money.

“They divert resources and are more interested in pushing politicised ideology.”

The health service said: “The number of equality, diversity and inclusion roles has been reduced.”

And in the Commons Health Committee yesterday, Mr Kelly said the new NHS funding would be wiped out by 2.8 per cent wage bumps, £1.6billion for National Insurance rises and the higher costs of drugs.

Tory MP Joe Robertson said: “The so-called ‘extra money’ will just vanish into union pay deals.”

NHS bosses were given a dressing down yesterday for waffling in their responses about plans to improve the service.

Committee chair Layla Moran said: “We were exasperated by lengthy answers.”

DROGHEDA UNITED have signed defender George Cooper on a season-long loan from Mansfield Town.

Cooper, 22, has made just two league appearances for the Stags but also played 52 times in National League North during two loan spells for Kettering Town.

He had joined Kiddersminster Harriers on loan in September but that was cut short by a shoulder injury.

Drogheda boss Kevin Doherty said: “George is an excellent player and meets the profile of what we look for in our defenders.

“He is a big, mobile, strong and athletic defender, and from his first session with us we can see he is vocal and commanding in defence.

“I’ve watched George for a long time and he has really impressed me every time I have seen him. 

“He really wanted to join and he has a hunger to play and that’s what we were looking for. I’m delighted to get him in.”

Elsewhere, Bohemians boss Alan Reynolds has hailed the quality of loan signing Kian Best.

Best, 19, has joined Bohs until the summer, when his Preston North End contract ends.

The left-back made 12 Championship appearances and won five England under-19 caps, scoring on his debut against Romania, last season.

He featured in their opening game of this campaign too but, after Ryan Lowe stepped down after that game, his only games under his successor Paul Heckingbottom came in the Carabao Cup.

But Reynolds believes he will prove a valuable addition. He said: “I am delighted to get Kian on board.

“He comes with a really good pedigree having played a significant number of games at a very high level in the English Championship with Preston.

“He is exactly the kind of quality that will strengthen our squad. He is a really exciting talent, he’s young and is clearly hungry to push on.

“He respects the league, is delighted to join the club and has made a brave decision to move away from home to push himself forward. 

“Left-back is a position we wanted to strengthen. We have taken our time to find the right fit, as we are with other positions.

“But we want to get the right players for the right positions and I feel we have done that with Kian, who is a really stylish left-back that we are really looking forward to working with.”