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:
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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.
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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.)
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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.
Live8 updates
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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 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.
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