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UEFA Champions League

Uefa Champions League group stage resumes this week with much at stake for all teams

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Manchester City s Erling Haaland, centre, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side s opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Liverpool at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. AP

The Champions League group stage moves into the final two rounds of matches on Tuesday with the results also affecting entries to other international competitions this season and next.

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Next season’s Champions League. This season’s Europa League knockout rounds. They’re are effectively in play right now.

That gives extra incentive even to those teams which have already advanced to the Champions League round of 16 in February — Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Real Sociedad, Leipzig — to keep pushing for the best possible results. Likewise for the six teams already out of contention: Benfica, Red Star Belgrade, Antwerp, Salzburg, Union Berlin, Young Boys.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

The first priority is trying to earn one of the 10 remaining places in the Champions League round-of-16 draw on Dec. 18.

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Napoli would advance with a win Wednesday at Madrid, the already qualified Group C leader, though likely must wait for a final game showdown hosting Braga on Dec. 12.

Arsenal will go through with just a draw Wednesday at home to Lens in Group B, and Atletico Madrid can advance with a win at Feyenoord on Tuesday in Group E.

Everything is open in the fascinating Group F where Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Newcastle can still finish in any position from first to last. On Tuesday, PSG hosts Newcastle and Milan hosts Dortmund.

It’s equally tight between Manchester United, Galatasaray and Copenhagen to finish second behind Group A winner Bayern.

Galatasaray hosting Man United on Wednesday could be the highest-stakes Champions League game of the week, with implications for each club and their respective countries. A loss for either team in Istanbul raises the risk of finishing last in the group which would mean no European football in February.

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Third-place finishers in each Champions League group next month continue playing in February. Those eight teams move across to the Europa League knockout playoffs, which also are drawn on Dec. 18.

For English soccer, it is a problem if Man United and Newcastle remain last in their groups and play no European games for the rest of the season.

BONUS CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PLACES

Expanding the Champions League next season in a new 36-team format means four more teams qualifying and two more guaranteed games for each in a single-standings league phase.

Two of the four extra entries will go to the countries whose teams collectively have the best overall record in this season’s European competitions.

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When UEFA confirmed this policy last year, England and Spain were predicted to earn those bonus places that would then be given to fifth-place finishers in the Premier League and La Liga. After all, English and Spanish clubs win most European trophies.

Right now, however, Turkey and Belgium are in line for those bonus entries. Clubs from those countries have the best average total of UEFA ranking points this season – 8.75 and 8.40, respectively.

In Turkey that’s because Galatasaray advanced through three qualifying rounds to get into a Champions League group — where it beat Man United at Old Trafford — and Fenerbahce has won nine games since July in the third-tier Europa Conference League.

All three Belgian clubs in the Conference League – Brugge, Gent and Genk – are unbeaten through four rounds, compensating for Antwerp’s struggles in the Champions League.

England and Spain also trail Germany and Italy in the ranking points standings and can ill afford having Man United, Newcastle and Sevilla sit last in Champions League groups.

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CLUB WORLD CUP

The relaunched FIFA Club World Cup tournament with 32 teams – 12 from Europe – is played at the end of next season in the United States.

If June 2025 seems a long way off, Champions League results this season are helping to decide which teams advance to what should be a huge brand-building opportunity every four years. FIFA also will pay tens of millions of prize money dollars.

Soccer’s world governing body has not yet confirmed the exact entry path. That could happen at a meeting in Saudi Arabia next month.

Manchester City, Real Madrid and Chelsea are in the Club World Cup as the past three winners of the Champions League. The European champion this season also gets a place.

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That leaves eight or nine entries from a yet-to-be-finalized formula that should reward teams for being consistently good in the four Champions League seasons from 2020-24.

FIFA has limited countries to two teams entering with exceptions only for Champions League winners. So Arsenal, Man United or Newcastle must win the final at Wembley Stadium on June 1 to be in the U.S. one year later.

Champions League regulars like Bayern and PSG can be confident they will be at the 2025 Club World Cup. For the rest, each result in this group stage matters more.

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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UEFA Champions League

LaLiga to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League

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Soccer Football - Europa League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Athletic Bilbao v Rangers - San Mames, Bilbao, Spain - April 17, 2025 Athletic Bilbao fans REUTERS/Vincent West

Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.

LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.

England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.

Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.

They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.

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-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

No complaints from Ancelotti, as Real humbled by Arsenal

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti reacts REUTERS/Juan Medina

Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.

“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”

When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.

But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.

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“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.

Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.

“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.

“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”

-Reuters

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UEFA Champions League

Arsenal cruise past lacklustre Real Madrid to reach semis

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Champions League - Quarter Final - Second Leg - Real Madrid v Arsenal - Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain - April 16, 2025 Arsenal's Bukayo Saka scores their first goal Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY 

Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.

Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.

Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.

Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.

They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.

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“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.

“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”

A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.

But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.

“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”

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PENALTY MISS

Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.

Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.

Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.

It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.

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After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.

That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.

Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.

Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.

William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.

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Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.

-Reuters

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