Champions League exit awaits Real Madrid or Man City and at least 3 more former title holders

Now the jeopardy really kicks in for the Champions League with a title chase, pride and hard cash on the line.

At least four former European champions will be among eight teams eliminated when the new knockout playoff round ends this week.

Real Madrid or Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Celtic, AC Milan or Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven or Juventus.

Their European seasons will be over in February before even reaching the round of 16 that teams like Madrid and Man City, who meet in their second-leg game Wednesday, have come to expect.

Indeed, City coach Pep Guardiola has never failed in 16 seasons of coaching — four at Barcelona, three at Bayern and nine in Manchester — to take his team to the round of 16 in the Champions League.

Advancing to the last-16 is worth 11 million euros ($11.5 million) in prize money from UEFA. While that pays just a few months of salary for Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland, it is a path toward a bigger share of the 2.5 billion euros ($2.6 billion) total prize fund shared by 36 teams that started in the league phase in September.

It took 152 games so far in the new expanded format — already 21% more than the entire 125-game competition in each of the past 21 seasons — just to reach this stage.

The business end of the Champions League arguably only starts now, with 37 games left through the May 31 final in Munich.

Real Madrid vs. Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a classic match in the modern Champions League: A 3-3 draw in the quarterfinals last year and a thrilling 3-1 win for Madrid in extra-time to decide their semifinal in 2022. Each time coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team went on to win the title, extending the record to 15 in the competition's 70-year history.

Their first meeting in Madrid, a group-stage game in September 2012, was a late comeback by Madrid with two goals after the 85th minute to win 3-2 — just as it was in Manchester last Tuesday in the first leg.

That 2012-13 season was the last time City did not play in the round of 16. The English champion’s streak of 11 straight years, including finally lifting the trophy in 2023, is at serious risk Wednesday.

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund start home games with leads from the first leg as they seek to join Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16. Bayern hosts Celtic on Tuesday with a 2-1 lead and Dortmund starts 3-0 up on Sporting Lisbon in the early game Wednesday.

Paris Saint-Germain also has a 3-0 advantage at home, against Brest on Wednesday. It will be the clubs' third meeting in 19 days. Benfica also won on the road, 1-0 at Monaco, and hosts the return leg on Tuesday.

Juventus takes a 2-1 lead to Eindhoven on Wednesday and Club Brugge is 2-1 up going to Atalanta on Tuesday in Bergamo. About 30 miles (50 kilometers) away, in Tuesday’s early game, AC Milan hosts Feyenoord trying to overturn a 1-0 deficit.

The Champions League is dominated more than ever by teams from the richest leagues in western Europe, banking hundreds of millions more in prize money.

No team from eastern Europe qualified for the knockout stage. Croatia’s champion Dinamo Zagreb was edged out in 25th place on goal difference behind Brugge.

All eight seeded teams already in the round of 16 come from the five countries — England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France — ranked highest by UEFA based on results in all European competitions across five seasons.

Sixth-ranked Netherlands and No. 7 Portugal are well set to place at least one team in the rest of the competition. The lowest-ranked country still involved, No. 14 Scotland, is likely to have Celtic eliminated by Bayern.

The pairings will be set Friday at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, at midday local time (1100 GMT).

The eight playoff winners will be unseeded, and play the home leg first, against the seeded teams that placed in the top eight of the 36-team league phase standings.

First-leg games are played March 4-5 and return games are one week later. There is now no separate draw for the quarterfinals and semifinals because the tennis-style seeded bracket is set through to the final.

Seedings: 1 Liverpool; 2 Barcelona; 3 Arsenal; 4 Inter Milan; 5 Atletico Madrid; 6 Bayer Leverkusen; 7 Lille; 8 Aston Villa.

Liverpool and Barcelona will be drawn against the winners of either of the playoffs involving the Nos. 15 and 16 seeds, PSG and Benfica. As Real Madrid placed 11th in the league, the winner of its playoff with Man City will next play the fifth- or sixth-place team, Atletico or Leverkusen.

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Dortmund's Serhou Guirassy challenges for the ball with Sporting's Maximiliano Araujo during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Sporting CP and Borussia Dortmund at the Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez, right, challenges for the ball with Feyenoord's David Hancko during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Feyenoord and AC Milan, at the De Kuip stadium, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Bayern's Harry Kane heads the ball besides Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers during the Champions League play off first leg soccer match between Celtic Glasgow and Bayern Munich at the Celtic Park Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)

Bayern's Harry Kane celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Champions League play off first leg soccer match between Celtic Glasgow and Bayern Munich at the Celtic Park Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Heppell)

Manchester City's Erling Haaland reacts after the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham, right, scores his sides third goal during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

Real Madrid's head coach Carlo Ancelotti, left and Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola share a laugh before the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham, right, celebrates with teammates after scoring his sides third goal during the Champions League playoff first leg soccer match between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.

The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.

The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”

Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”

Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”

Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”

The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.

Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.

Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.

The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.

“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”

For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.

And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”

Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.

In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.

At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.

The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”

Barrow reported from Atlanta.

People react to a photograph of President Donald Trump on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors to the National Portrait Gallery walk past the portrait of President Donald Trump, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Visitors stop to look at a photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)