1 year ago
31
GENEVA (AP):
MANCHESTER CITY stayed in the Champions League, barely. Paris Saint-Germain saved its elite status in style.
Both had risked embarrassing exits before winning yesterday, 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 finalised.
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-winners were 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 realisation that their playoff-round opponents will be either Madrid or Bayern, who 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 champions 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 they win 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 runners-up after a 2-2 draw with Atalanta.
Only the top eight teams go direct to the round of 16, and that excludes Madrid, who won 3-0 at Brest, and Bayern, 3-1, winners against Slovan Bratislava.
WOEFUL CAMPAIGN
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, who had a woeful campaign.
Bayer Leverkusen, Lille – who thrashed Feyenoord 6-1 – and Aston Villa completed the top eight.
Stuttgart dropped to 26th and were eliminated along with Dinamo Zagreb despite their 2-1 win over AC Milan, whose United States playmaker Christian Pulisic had levelled 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 are not Bayern, and the one French team are not PSG.
Those four wealthy powers of European football 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 were still 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 champions Celtic finished 21st, one place and one point above Man City.
English (US) ·