Manchester Metropolis stayed within the Champions League, barely. Paris Saint-Germain saved its elite standing in model.
Each had risked embarrassing exits earlier than successful on Wednesday, grateful to be among the many 24 groups within the knockout stage. Within the new playoffs-round draw Friday, they may also discover defending champion Actual Madrid or Bayern Munich who completed in mid-table after the 36-team standings was finalized.
Metropolis flirted with a catastrophe earlier than rallying to beat Membership Brugge 3-1 in a must-win sport. Trailing 1-0 at halftime, after which sitting twenty sixth within the stay standings, the 2023 title-winner was sparked by substitute Savinho to keep away from elimination.
“Within the second half we let our souls and hearts free,” mentioned Metropolis supervisor Pep Guardiola, who had an anguished night on the sidelines and was proven a yellow card.
Metropolis completed twenty second however aid turns to the conclusion that its playoff spherical opponent shall be both Madrid or Bayern, which slotted into the bracket prospects in, respectively, eleventh and twelfth place.
PSG began play in twenty second earlier than cruising to a 4-1 win at Stuttgart, fired by Ousmane Dembélé’s hat trick, that eradicated the German membership.
The French champion impressed once more after an important 4-2 comeback win over Man Metropolis one week in the past, and rose to fifteenth place. Nonetheless, that places PSG on a path to satisfy both Liverpool or Barcelona within the spherical of 16 in March if it wins an all-French playoff in opposition to both Monaco or Brest.
Liverpool topped the standings regardless of a 3-2 loss with a weakened crew at PSV Eindhoven, and Barcelona ended runner-up after a 2-2 draw with Atalanta.
Solely the highest eight groups go direct to the spherical of 16 and that excludes Madrid, which gained 3-0 at Brest, and Bayern, a 3-1 winner in opposition to Slovan Bratislava.
Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid sealed top-eight finishes as anticipated with low-key wins. Inter beat Monaco 3-0, Arsenal gained 2-1 at Girona and Atletico gained 4-1 at Salzburg, which had a woeful marketing campaign.
Bayer Leverkusen, Lille — which thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 — and Aston Villa accomplished the highest eight.
Stuttgart dropped to twenty sixth place and was eradicated together with Dinamo Zagreb, regardless of its 2-1 win over AC Milan whose United States playmaker Christian Pulisic had leveled the sport. Milan can face Juventus within the playoffs spherical.
Brugge took the twenty fourth qualification place forward of Dinamo on the tiebreaker of purpose distinction.
An unprecedented Champions League night time of 18 video games enjoying on the identical time — finishing the brand new 144-game opening part format – ended with no shock exits although closing standings that defied expectations.
Three English groups completed within the prime eight however not Man Metropolis.
Two Spanish groups completed within the prime eight however not Actual Madrid.
The one German crew within the prime eight will not be Bayern, and the one French crew will not be PSG.
These 4 rich powers of European soccer discovered the brand new eight-game format trickier than anticipated. They now have the burden of two further video games on back-to-back midweeks in February to earn spherical of 16 locations that had been routine within the outdated group-stage format.
Villa joined Liverpool and Arsenal within the prime eight by beating Celtic 4-2 to rise to 16 factors — the lower that meant avoiding the playoffs.
UEFA’s preseason prediction of eight factors to enter the knockout part proved far off the mark.
Dinamo obtained 11 factors and nonetheless was eradicated, making certain no crew from japanese Europe shall be within the knockout part.
The bottom-ranked nation in Friday’s playoffs spherical draw is Scotland, whose champion Celtic completed twenty first, one place and one level above Man Metropolis.
Printed – January 31, 2025 02:27 am IST
