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 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.
Vangelis Pavlidis puts Benfica up 1-0 at Juventus.
Almost simultaneously, Ousmane Dembélé scores for PSG to double their lead at Stuttgart.
And then Dinamo Zagreb, the Croatian club that’s largely been written off, goes ahead against AC Milan!
That leaves the bubble looking like this…
(UEFA)
The goals keep coming as Martínez puts Inter up over Monaco!
Lautaro Martínez etches his name in Inter history, notching his 15th UCL goal to pass Adriano for the most in club history 🌟 pic.twitter.com/KooJGc3GYY
Feyenoord’s equalizer at Lille bumped Lille back down in the playoff places.
A slow start for Man City
City looked open and vulnerable to Brugge counterattacks early.
At the other end, they haven’t created much of note in the first 12 minutes.
They’ll have plenty of possession, and they’ll probably camp out in the final third. The question, as ever, is whether they can translate that to chances, and eventually ram in a goal. A draw wouldn’t be sufficient.
Two minutes later and Rogers scores again! Villa up 2-0 vs. Celtic
Morgan Rogers 🤯
The first player in UEFA Champions League history to score twice in the opening five minutes of a game in the competition 🤩
First goal of the day goes to Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers
1-0 to PSG!
Bradley Barcola puts the Parisians up 1-0 from a corner.
That, of course, leaves PSG in excellent shape. They only need a draw.
Early goals, early movement
Morgan Rogers scores for Aston Villa against Celtic. And then he scores again, to put the hosts up 2-0 inside five minutes. (Rogers has been a revelation at Villa Park this season.)
That result, for now, would push Villa up into the top eight.
Inter Milan, Atlético Madrid, Lille and Bayern Munich are also up 1-0
Underway!
All 36 teams, all 18 games, all at once.
This could be riveting. It could be totally overwhelming, and/or anticlimactic.
Let’s find out!
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)
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)
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’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
A fire broke out in one of Man City’s merchandise units just hours before their Champions League clash with Club Brugge 😳
Thankfully everyone on site was evacuated in time, and the blaze was contained 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ZPjGeruxkY
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.
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…
