Home Sports Champions League set for dramatic finale – how it stands

Champions League set for dramatic finale – how it stands

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Prize money from the Champions League qualifiers. . .

The opening phase of the Champions League is set for an exciting final day with 25 of the 36 teams still awaiting their fate.

All 18 matches will be played at the same time, at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday 29 January, and 16 matches will have something on the line.

Manchester City is in great danger of being eliminated after Wednesday’s collapse at Paris St-Germainwhile Liverpool are through, Arsenal are almost there and Aston Villa and Celtic, who face each other, are somewhere in between.

The “as-is” table will be constantly updated and the teams’ hopes will potentially depend on other results.

This is the first season of the new format, compared to the old four-team and two-team groups, where sometimes there was nothing at stake in the end.

“It’s been brilliant, rather than the dullness we’ve had for years on the last matchday,” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher wrote on social media.

“Next week will be sensational.”

How many teams qualify for the knockout phase?

First, here’s a reminder of what the 36 teams in the league phase are aiming for.

Those who finish in the top eight will automatically advance to the round of 16, where they will be seeded.

They will await the winners of eight two-legged knockout ties between the clubs ranked ninth to 24th.

Those who finish between ninth and 16th will be seeded and will face a team ranked 17th to 24th, with the advantage of playing the second leg at home.

Clubs in 25th place or lower are eliminated and do not access the Europa League.

The qualifiers will be played in mid-February and the round of 16 will be played in the first two weeks of March.

Which teams have qualified and who is out?

Guaranteed top eight: Liverpool, Barcelona

Guaranteed top-24 (at least): Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atlético de Madrid, AC Milan, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Monaco, Feyenoord, Lille, Brest, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Celtic

Uncertain progression: PSV, Club Brugge, Benfica, PSG, Sporting, Stuttgart, Manchester City, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk

Removed: Bologna, Sparta Prague, Leipzig, Girona, Red Star Belgrade, Sturm Graz, Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys

What do the British teams have to go through?

city ​​of manchester have a very simple permutation. If they beat Club Brugge at home they will advance to the play-off round. If they fail to win they will be eliminated.

They cannot automatically reach the round of 16.

Villa Aston They are guaranteed at least a place in the play-offs.

A home win against Celtic would give them a good chance of finishing in the top eight, although they would need one of the five teams above them to make a mistake.

But also, four teams are only below Villa on goal difference, so a big win for one of those teams could allow them to overtake Villa as well.

Celtic They are only one point behind Villa, so it is possible that they could finish in the top eight, but they would need to win and have a lot of things happen above them.

Arsenal – visiting Girona – are practically in the round of 16, as they are three points ahead of the play-offs with a much better goal difference than any team with 13 points.

Liverpool They are one of two teams, along with Barcelona, ​​who know they are already in the round of 16 and will be guaranteed a place in the top two.

Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are among the giants between ninth and 24th hoping things go well to finish in the top eight.

Does it matter where you finish in the top eight?

Definitely.

Where a team finishes in the league standings determines which opponents it will face and when it can face them in the knockout stage.

Take Liverpool as an example. The Reds are now guaranteed a top-two finish, giving them a seeded route to the round of 16.

That means the Reds will face a team that finished 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th in the round of 16.

The team’s identity will not be known until after the play-offs, but the predetermined draw means it will be the winner of the playoffs between teams finishing in those four places.

Liverpool cannot face the team that finishes second in the league stage – or the team that finishes first if they are beaten on the final round – until the final.

Conversely, a team that finishes seventh or eighth could face a team that finished just below it in the league stage: in ninth or tenth place.

For more information on who plays who in the play-offs, read on…

What is the difference between finishing ninth and 24th?

Teams that finish between ninth and 16th will be classified in the knockout phase play-off draw.

It means they will face a team that finishes between 17th and 24th.

Who the seeded teams will face will be determined by a draw, but clubs will only have two possible opponents.

For example, teams that finish in 11th and 12th place will be paired up and play against a team that finishes in 21st or 22nd place.

Another group will match the teams that finish ninth and tenth in the table, playing against the team that finished in 23rd or 24th place.

The two pairs of matches will be divided into opposite halves of the overall draw and the seeded teams will play the second leg of the play-off at home as a reward for finishing better than their opponent in the league stage.

Unlike previous years, teams eliminated from the Champions League, either in the group stage or losing a play-off, will not be relegated to the Europa League.

The play-off round draw will take place on January 31 at 11:00 GMT.

Has this format worked?

One of UEFA’s reasons for switching to this format was that “every match counts”.

He said the format “will ensure that any result has the potential to dramatically change a team’s position, up to and including the final matchday.”

And so it has turned out with only two dead games (Sturm Graz-Leipzig and Young Boys-Red Star Belgrade) and 16 games with something at stake.

There are several matches in which both clubs fight for the same goal, such as Manchester City-Club Bruges, Stuttgart-PSG, Brest-Real Madrid and Inter Milan-Monaco.

It could create some nice chaos for fans as some teams could be hit for 10+ more games. Aston Villa, for example, could beat six teams or be beaten by 15 teams (although not all), including Celtic.

Another reason UEFA gave for the new format was to ensure more matches between the top teams in the early stages of the tournament.

This year, Real Madrid have faced Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool in replays of three recent finals, and Barcelona have faced Bayern Munich, while Paris St-Germain have faced Arsenal, Atlético Madrid , Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

What is the financial impact of finishing where?

Failure to qualify for the next round means taking a financial hit.

Each club in the league phase receives €18.62 million for participating, with performance bonuses of €2.1 million for a win and €700,000 for a draw.

Furthermore, each position in the table is worth 275,000 euros. Thus, the team that finishes in 36th place wins the same amount, the 35th claims between 550,000 euros and 9.9 million euros for the first.

Teams finishing first to eighth will also receive a €2 million bonus, and teams finishing ninth to 16th will receive €1 million.

The prize money for reaching each elimination round is shown below.

UEFA has also introduced a “value pillar” that splits broadcast revenue. This increases again depending on your final position in the league phase.

That’s before matchday earnings and other factors are taken into account.

In other words, removing it early is quite costly.

Prize money from the Champions League qualifiers. . .

Watch highlights from every Champions League match starting at 10pm Wednesday on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.

There will also be a Champions League Match of the Day on BBC One on Wednesday, from 10.40pm to midnight.

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