Eswatini, Chad, Liberia, and South Sudan, all negotiated their way through the preliminary stage of qualifiers for AFCON 2025.
The quarter-final second legs produced penalty shootout drama as Esperance beat ASEC Mimosas and Mamelodi Sundowns edged out Young Africans after both those ties ended goalless.
Egypt giants Al Ahly completed a 3-0 aggregate win over Simba and TP Mazembe overcame Petro de Luanda to confirm the last four lineup.
While in the CAF Confederations Cup the semi-finals will be between USM Alger v RS Berkane and Zamalek v Dreams FC.
Fans witnessed somewhat of a quarter-final goalfest as Arsenal and Bayern Munich shared four goals while Real Madrid and the holders Manchester City split six goals.
That was followed by a 3-2 victory for Barcelona over PSG and a 2-1 home win for Diego Simeone's Atletico against Borussia Dortmund.
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool are as restricted as even money to win the UEL, they meet Atalanta in the quarter-finals while West Ham have been matched with still-unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen.
The other last eight encounters are Benfica v OM and an all-Italian matchup between AC Milan and Roma.
Unai Emery's Aston Villa go into the quarter-finals against Lille while Fiorentina clash with Plzen.
And there are potentially volatile meetings between the Turks of Fenerbahce and the Greeks of Olympiakos plus a visit to POAK for Club Brugge.
New leaders Manchester City eased past Luton 5-1 at the Etihad before watching both Liverpool, 1-0 to Crystal Palace, and Arsenal, 2-0 to Aston Villa, lose at home.
Real Madrid won 1-0 at Cup finalists Mallorca to stay well clear of Barcelona, who also won by a single goal (at Cadiz)
The top three all drew with leaders Inter sharing four goals with Cagliari and AC Milan six goals at Sassuolo.
PSG don't play until next weekend but they were helped by second-placed Brest's 4-3 defeat at Lyon.
Still unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen joyfully celebrated clinching their first Bundesliga title by beating Werder Bremen 5-0 at the BayArena.
Benfica overcame Moreirense 3-0 to edge closer to leaders Sporting (who are at Famalicao on Tuesday)