Category: UEFA Competitions

The final night of the group stage produced plenty of drama. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Manchester City

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Trying to keep across 29 hours’ worth of football was not just akin to major substance abuse but a cause of fear and panic

Raspberry Beret by Prince, Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees, American Pie by Don McLean, All I Want is You by U2, the theme tune to Sesame Street: these are all in their different ways excellent pieces of music. But as part of playlists broadcast without end and at high volume, all have been used by the US army in psychological warfare – demonstrating that too much of a good thing is not just possible but, at extreme levels, absolutely excruciating. Watching the manic conclusion to the Champions League group stage on Wednesday brought those playlists to mind, as I debated whether I was being entertained or encouraged to run screaming from my house.

The trend in sport for many years has been to make competitions bigger, longer, more drawn out, and at first the new 36-team Champions League format felt like another step on this tiresome journey. But the widely acknowledged need for the final games of a group stage to be played at the same time forced tournament organisers into a temporary swerve in a very different direction. If you watched the final round of fixtures traditionally, soberly, one game at a time, even without breaks or pauses it would take you one entire day and five additional hours, including stoppage time.

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City went behind just before half-time but Savinho, on as sub, helped change the game, and City ran out comfortable winners to qualify for the playoffs

Which is to say there are a lot of teams in the playoff and last 16 who, if they turn up, are capable of beating opponents with more money. I guess the likelihood is that, by the last eight and definitely by the last four, it’s the usual names, but don’t rule out some surprises. No one will fancy facing Atalanta or Villa, while Leverkusen also have a chance.

I may receive heat for this hot take, but none of the below are all that are they? Liverpool are good, of course, but they’re not that good; already this season, Barca have lost to Osasuna, Las Palmas and Leganes; yet they’ve clattered Madrid, who generally hang about until someone good does something good, twice; and so on.

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All five British clubs survived to fight another day as the Champions League league phase came to an end

Here we go, then. It’s on. I’m going in. Good luck everyone.

The teams are out! Of the 36 currently doing their stretches, politely listening to corporate anthems, shaking hands, tossing coins and swapping pennants, only 11 are sure of their fate. Liverpool and Barcelona are definitely through to the last 16; Bologna, Sparta Prague, RB Leipzig, Girona, Red Star Belgrade, Sturm Graz, RB Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava and Young Boys already know the jig is up. Everyone else pensive, in their special place. A kind of hush, all over the continent tonight. The calm before the storm. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.

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• Merchandise kiosk caught fire before Club Brugge match
• Presentation of new signings cancelled as area evacuated

An area outside the Etihad Stadium had to be evacuated before Manchester City’s Champions League game against Club Brugge on Wednesday after a merchandise kiosk caught fire.

The blaze broke out shortly before 6pm, close to where Pep Guardiola’s City team had been due to enter the stadium at around 6.30pm. Supporters had gathered in the area for a pre-match entertainment show which included on-stage interviews with January signings Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov.

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• Manager keen to score ‘a lot’ in opening 20 minutes
• Oscar Bobb in contention after five-month injury

Pep Guardiola is approaching ­Manchester City’s must-win final Champions League group game against Club Brugge with “no emotion” to ensure his players understand precisely how to execute the manager’s gameplan.

City are in 25th place, two points behind Stuttgart in the final qualifying position. So if Brugge are not defeated, Guardiola’s side will be knocked out of Europe. The City manager is therefore unsurprisingly approaching the match with cold-eyed intent. “We’d like to score goals in the first 20 minutes – a lot,” he said. “But I think it’s not going to happen. The approach is now to read the game you have to play, for them [players] to do. Completely relaxed, not emotional, it’s to understand the game.

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Nail-biting drama awaits as 18 Champions League games take place all at once, and the nerves will be jangling at some of the biggest clubs

The level of chaos expected in the final round of European “league phase” fixtures can be summed up by the fact Uefa officials have been directing clubs to a simulator that helps them make sense of the permutations affecting their team. They will also be able to monitor changes to their prospects in real time.

Nothing like Wednesday night’s Champions League denouement, when 18 games will take place simultaneously in a dramatic scramble for progress to the knockouts, has been seen before and the challenges are obvious. Swiftly communicating the implications of sudden swings in a densely packed table may tax the ablest of mathematical brains.

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With a Champions League playoff spot secured before Wednesday’s trip to Aston Villa, the manager will have a plan for life after Glasgow

These are compelling times for a compelling character. January has witnessed Brendan Rodgers jousting with his own supporter base, fall victim to an ultra-rare Old Firm defeat and guide his team to the playoff round of the Champions League. The argument was entertaining, the loss at Ibrox totally unimportant, and Celtic’s manager will return to the Midlands on Wednesday night having achieved a stated goal – making material headway in Europe. Substance over style.

Timing is everything. Rodgers has done this just as Ange Postecoglou flounders badly at Tottenham in a blow to those at Celtic desperately clinging to the Australian’s supposedly transferable skills. Rodgers and Postecoglou are fundamentally different in umpteen senses, one being that the Irishman has an emotional attachment to Celtic. Without that, the Scottish champions could not attract a coach of his standing or ambition. A persistent question surrounds how long that connection can sustain Rodgers in a domestic scene which should not excite him beyond a contract term that ends in the summer of 2026. In that context, the Champions League is hugely significant.

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We look at the state of play before Wednesday’s games with places in the last 16 and playoffs up for grabs

IN THE AUTOMATIC SPOTS

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Barcelona and Benfica produced a classic that swung from the sublime to the ridiculous. We hand out honours and dishonours from the latest round of action

Barcelona

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• Milan and Inter in top eight after victories
• Shakhtar give themselves hope of playoffs

Santiago Giménez scored twice in the first half as Feyenoord stunned Bayern Munich 3-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday to boost their chances of a top-eight finish.

Giménez fired them into the lead in the 21st minute with a deft shot before the Mexico international added a second with a penalty in the ninth minute of first-half stoppage time. Ayase Ueda, on as a substitute, killed off the game in the 89th minute after the Feyenoord keeper Justin Bijlow had denied Bayern with a string of strong saves.

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