Geneva, Jan 30: Manchester City stayed in the Champions League, barely. Paris Saint-Germain saved its elite status in style.
Both had risked embarrassing exits before winning on Wednesday, grateful to be among the 24 teams in the knockout stage. In the new playoffs-round draw Friday, they will also find defending champion Real Madrid or Bayern Munich who finished in mid-table after the 36-team standings was finalized.
City flirted with a disaster before rallying to beat Club Brugge 3-1 in a must-win game. Trailing 1-0 at halftime, and then sitting 26th in the live standings, the 2023 title-winner was sparked by substitute Savinho to avoid elimination.
“In the second half we let our souls and hearts free,” said City manager Pep Guardiola, who had an anguished evening on the sidelines and was shown a yellow card.
City finished 22nd but relief turns to the realization that its playoff round opponent will be either Madrid or Bayern, which slotted into the bracket possibilities in, respectively, 11th and 12th place.PSG started play in 22nd before cruising to a 4-1 win at Stuttgart, fired by Ousmane Dembélé’s hat trick, that eliminated the German club.The French champion impressed again after a crucial 4-2 comeback win over Man City one week ago, and rose to 15th place. Still, that puts PSG on a path to meet either Liverpool or Barcelona in the round of 16 in March if it wins an all-French playoff against either Monaco or Brest.
Liverpool topped the standings despite a 3-2 loss with a weakened team at PSV Eindhoven, and Barcelona ended runner-up after a 2-2 draw with Atalanta.
Only the top eight teams go direct to the round of 16 and that excludes Madrid, which won 3-0 at Brest, and Bayern, a 3-1 winner against Slovan Bratislava.
Inter Milan, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid sealed top-eight finishes as expected with low-key wins. Inter beat Monaco 3-0, Arsenal won 2-1 at Girona and Atletico won 4-1 at Salzburg, which had a woeful campaign.
Bayer Leverkusen, Lille – which thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 – and Aston Villa completed the top eight.
Stuttgart dropped to 26th place and was eliminated along with Dinamo Zagreb, despite its 2-1 win over AC Milan whose United States playmaker Christian Pulisic had leveled the game. Milan can face Juventus in the playoffs round.
Brugge took the 24th qualification place ahead of Dinamo on the tiebreaker of goal difference.An unprecedented Champions League night of 18 games playing at the same time – completing the new 144-game opening phase format – ended with no shock exits though final standings that defied expectations.
Three English teams finished in the top eight but not Man City.
Two Spanish teams finished in the top eight but not Real Madrid.
The one German team in the top eight is not Bayern, and the one French team is not PSG.Those four wealthy powers of European soccer found the new eight-game format trickier than expected. They now have the burden of two extra games on back-to-back midweeks in February to earn round of 16 places that were routine in the old group-stage format.
Villa joined Liverpool and Arsenal in the top eight by beating Celtic 4-2 to rise to 16 points – the cut that meant avoiding the playoffs.
UEFA’s preseason prediction of eight points to enter the knockout phase proved far off the mark.
Dinamo got 11 points and still was eliminated, ensuring no team from eastern Europe will be in the knockout phase.
The lowest-ranked country in Friday’s playoffs round draw is Scotland, whose champion Celtic finished 21st, one place and one point above Man City. (AP)
Rogers sets CL scoring record after Villa receive fresh offers
London, Jan 30: At a time when Aston Villa’s strikers are in high demand, another of the team’s attackers now has a Champions League scoring feat for which Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or Erling Haaland would be proud.
With goals in the third and fifth minutes against Celtic, Morgan Rogers became the first player to score twice in the opening five minutes of a Champions League game, statistics supplier Opta said Wednesday.
The England attacking midfielder wound up with a hat trick after scoring his third goal in second-half stoppage time to wrap up a 4-2 win as Villa finished in eighth place to qualify automatically for the round of 16.
“Definitely the highlight of my career so far,” said the 22-year-old Rogers, a former Manchester City youth-team player.
Rogers marked his goals at Villa Park with a Cole Palmer-style celebration, rubbing his hands over his arms in a “cold” pose.
It continued Rogers’ breakthrough season at Villa – and his goals might be important going forward this season.
There was speculation in the British media Wednesday linking Jhon Duran, Villa’s back-up striker from Colombia, with a move to Al Nassr – the Saudi club where Cristiano Ronaldo plays.
“We are in the eyes of another strong team, another strong league like (Saudi) Arabia. It’s something I can feel proud of,” Villa manager Unai Emery said.
“I don’t know exactly until everything is done if Jhon Duran is leaving or not. But if he is leaving, it’s good news for us, because they are paying good money, because it’s good news for him, because we develop a player for two years and get this offer.” Duran was an unused substitute against Celtic, with fellow striker Ollie Watkins playing the whole game and scoring Villa’s other goal – he also missed a penalty after slipping when attempting to kick the ball.
Watkins was playing amid speculation over his future, with Arsenal reportedly having made a bid for the England striker that was rejected. Watkins is a boyhood Arsenal fan.
“We want to keep him,” Emery said of Watkins. “Every player can be available in the market if it’s good for the player, for the club, for the team. But to get this deal, we need to be demanding as well. Watkins is our striker.” (AP)
New-look Champions League brings more goals per game
London, Jan 30: After a frantic last round of action Wednesday, the inaugural 36-team league phase in Champions League history is over.
Here’s a look at some of the numbers that tell the story of how the first season in the new-look format has gone: 144: The number of games in the 36-team league phase, up from 96 last year in the old 32-team group format.
3.27: Goals per game in the new format, up from 3.09 per game in last season’s group stage.
9: Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski and Borussia Dortmund’s Serhou Guirassy are joint top scorers with nine goals each.
28: The number of goals scored by Barcelona, six more than any other team in the league phase.
Manchester City led the way with last season with 28 goals in its entire Champions League campaign, including knockout games.
7: Liverpool’s winning streak stopped at seven games with a 3-2 loss at PSV Eindhoven.
That loss meant there were no unbeaten teams in the league phase. Six teams qualified unbeaten from their groups last season.
23: The number of games won by a margin of four goals or more.
Bayern Munich’s 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb on the opening night set the tone as one-sided games were more common. Last year only four group games were won by four goals or more.
Having goal difference as the primary tiebreaker – unlike last year – gave stronger teams an incentive to run up the score.
0: The number of teams from eastern Europe that reached the knockout rounds, despite the expanded format.
Clubs from Croatia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine all finished outside the top 24.
Zagreb was closest in 25th but missed out on goal difference despite upsetting AC Milan 2-1.
No eastern European team has played a Champions League knockout game since Shakhtar Donetsk in 2017-18. (AP)