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Champions League live updates: Lineups, scenarios, key questions as group phase ends with chaotic final matchday

January 29, 2025No CommentsPosted inSports
Champions League live updates: Lineups, scenarios, key questions as group phase ends with chaotic final matchday

The new age of the UEFA Champions League reaches its first climax on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. All 36 teams will play 18 simultaneous games to conclude the “league phase.” CBS Sports, which will broadcast all 18 on Paramount+ in the United States, has been billing it as “Matchday Mayhem.”

That’s because, over two chaotic, confusing hours, dozens of goals will be scored, and each one will tweak the live Champions League table. Teams will leap and fall, above and below various cut-lines. And by the end, several pressing questions will be answered, namely:

  • Will Manchester City crash out? The 2023 champions of Europe, and reigning kings of England, must beat Club Brugge to advance to the knockout rounds.

  • Will PSG survive? A draw at Stuttgart would be sufficient. A loss would put them at the mercy of Man City, Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal. (If City wins, neither Portuguese club loses, and PSG does lose, the Parisians would be out.)

  • Who will claim the six available byes to the Round of 16? Liverpool and Barcelona have locked up two of eight. A whopping 18 teams are still in contention for the rest.

For those not yet familiar with the new Champions League format, a refresher: The 36 teams are all tussling in a single table. The top eight finishers will advance straight to the Round of 16. The next 16 — those in positions 9-24 — will advance to a playoff round. The bottom 12 will be eliminated.

After seven of eight matches apiece, the tiered table looks like this:

Clinched bye to Round of 16: Liverpool (21), Barcelona (18)

Clinched knockout rounds, in contention for bye: Arsenal (16), Inter Milan (16), Atlético Madrid (15), AC Milan (15), Atalanta (14), Bayer Leverkusen (13), Aston Villa (13), Monaco (13), Lille (13), Brest (13), Feyenoord (13), Borussia Dortmund (12), Bayern Munich (12), Real Madrid (12), Juventus (12), Celtic (12)

In contention for knockout rounds: PSV (11), Club Brugge (11), Benfica (10), PSG (10), Sporting Clube de Portugal (10), Stuttgart (10), Manchester City (8), Dinamo Zagreb (8), Shakhtar Donetsk (7)

Eliminated: Bologna (5), Sparta Prague (4), RB Leipzig (3), Girona (3), Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) (3), Sturm Graz (3), RB Salzburg (3), BSC Young Boys (1), Slovan Bratislava (0)

The matchups for Matchday 8, or “Matchday Mayhem,” are here.

The live standings, which will update during games and become the final standings around 5 p.m. ET, are here. (The knockout phase draw will be Friday.)

And we at Yahoo Sports will help you make sense of all the twists and turns, the highlights and controversies, below.

Live10 updates

  • Will PSG and Stuttgart play for draw?

    One additional detail to consider: PSG and Stuttgart, who meet head-to-head in Germany tonight, and who are level on 10 points, would both guarantee progression to the playoff round with a draw.

    So… might they be conservative, or even collude and settle for a 0-0?

    The latter scenario is unlikely, because of the opti. But, if they’re tied in the second half, don’t be surprised if they both rein things in and accept a draw.

  • As it stands…

    Before everything kicks off, a reminder that, entering the day, the bracket would look like this:

    (UEFA)(UEFA)

    (UEFA)

    Of course, all of that will change over the next two hours.

    You can game out your own scenarios, and follow the live table, on UEFA’s website.

  • The Champions League knockout bracket will soon take shape

    By the end of the night, we’ll know which 24 teams will advance to the knockout rounds.

    We’ll also get a rough outline of the knockout-round bracket. Whereas in past years, UEFA held a draw ahead of each round, this year teams will be seeded and drawn into a bracket that looks like this:

    The Champions League knockout-round bracket shell. (UEFA)The Champions League knockout-round bracket shell. (UEFA)

    The Champions League knockout-round bracket shell. (UEFA)

    In other words, by night’s end, every qualifying team will have their first opponent whittled down to two or four options. Whoever finishes 15th will play either 17th or 18th in the playoff round. Whoever finishes first will play either 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th in the Round of 16. (In the bracket above, read “/” as “or.”)

    They playoff qualifiers (teams 9-24) learn their specific opponents at a draw on Friday (6 a.m. ET).

    They’ll then play two-leg ties in mid-February. And then, with the field cut to 16, a second draw on Feb. 21 will sort the remaining teams and set the full bracket.

    The entire field will essentially be seeded in pods of two — 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, and so on — to ensure that the top two teams can’t meet until the final, the top four can’t meet until the semifinals, and the top eight can’t meet until the quarters.

  • Despite fire, Man City vs. Club Brugge will still kick off at 3 p.m. ET

  • How to watch today

    First things first: In the U.S., every game is on Paramount+.

    The question: Which of the 18 should you choose?

    The best answer: All of them. Watch the “Golazo Show,” which is soccer’s best take on “NFL RedZone.” It’s whiparound coverage of every goal, big chance and more. The CBS Sports crew — unlike the Premier League and other broadcasters who’ve tried similar concepts — has done an excellent job with it. And it might as well have been designed specifically for a day like today.

    But if you’d prefer less chaos, Man City-Brugge is probably the pick. If you have a second screen, go with that and PSG-Stuttgart.

  • Scenarios, and how to follow them

    There are literally thousands of potential outcomes today. With 18 simultaneous games and goal differential inevitably a factor, the scenarios are endless.

    So, our advice is the same as it was ahead of Matchday 1: Don’t even try to process them.

    There are a few digestible ones, of course:

    • Manchester City must beat Club Brugge

    • PSG must win or draw to be safe. A loss at Stuttgart, a Man City win, and results for Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal would eliminate the Parisians.

    • However, all four of PSG, Stuttgart, Benfica and Sporting would go through, no matter their results, if Man City doesn’t win.

    • Atlético Madrid and AC Milan, the two teams on 15 points, can clinch a bye to the Round of 16 with a win

    But so much is contingent on so much else that the full list of permutations is impossible to internalize. So, settle in, watch the games, and follow along; we’ll try to help you understand the implications of each goal.

  • Lineups

    Liverpool, having already clinched a spot in the top two, will play a second-string team on this final matchday. (There is no difference between finishing first and second.)

    Elsewhere, there’s some rotation for teams already secure in the knockout-rounds, but most are playing their strongest lineups.

  • A first outside Man City’s stadium

    A decisive evening at Manchester City begin with a fire outside the Etihad Stadium.

    It has been extinguished, authorities say nobody was harmed, and the game is set to go ahead as planned. But still, not the ideal start to the night…

    The Associated Press has more details here.

  • Man City’s lineup for their win-or-go-home match vs. Club Brugge

  • Matchday Mayhem begins in one hour

    Welcome to Yahoo Sports’ live coverage of the final day of the Champions League group phase! Keep it locked right here for all the latest news, highlights, scenarios and scores as 18 games kick off at 3 p.m. ET with three teams facing elimination including Manchester City and PSG.


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