The final round of the Champions League group stage in the 2023/24 season promises to be dramatic and exciting with intense matches that will decide the ticket to the round of 16.
 |
| The 2023/24 Champions League has one more match left until the end of the group stage. (Source: Getty Images) |
After 5 matches in the group stage, 12 teams have successfully registered their names in the knockout round of the 2023/24 Champions League season.
The 12 teams include Bayern Munich (Group A), Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven (Group B), Real Madrid (Group C), Real Sociedad, Inter Milan (Group D), Atletico Madrid, Lazio (Group E), Borussia Dortmund (Group F), Manchester City, RB Leipzig (Group G) and Barcelona (Group H).
The remaining four spots in the round of 16 will be determined after the final matches in groups A, C, F and H taking place on the morning of December 13 and 14.
In Group A , except for Bayern Munich who have already secured a ticket to the next round and are certain to be in first place in the group, the remaining 3 teams, Copenhagen, Galatasaray and MU, will compete for the remaining spot.
Copenhagen and Galatasaray are both on 5 points, 1 point more than their remaining competitor MU.
Coach Erik ten Hag's team is currently in a difficult position as their chance of reaching the knockout round is extremely narrow.
In the final match, MU faced many disadvantages when facing Bayern Munich, while Copenhagen and Galatasaray faced each other directly.
To qualify, the Red Devils must win against the Bavarian Tigers and hope the Copenhagen-Galatasaray match ends in a draw.
However, all the efforts of the Old Trafford team will be meaningless if the match at the same time has a win or loss. They may even have to say goodbye to the European arena if they lose to Bayern Munich.
Obviously, the pressure on coach Erik ten Hag and his team is enormous, especially after they suffered defeat against Bournemouth at Old Trafford a few days ago.
In Group C , Real Madrid has already won the right to continue and is also certain to win the top spot with 15 absolute points. The final match of the White Vultures with Union Berlin is just a formality.
The remaining ticket of this group will be a direct competition between Napoli and Braga with the advantage leaning towards the Italian representative.
Napoli are on 7 points, 3 more than Braga. They also beat Braga 2-1 away from home in the first leg, meaning the reigning Serie A champions only need a draw to complete their goal.
In this rematch, Napoli also has a huge advantage over Braga when playing at Diego Armando Maradona's home stadium.
Meanwhile, Group F - the Champions League group of death - still promises to be very tense and dramatic until the last seconds.
Borussia Dortmund have officially won the right to continue, while the remaining ticket will be a race between Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle United and AC Milan.
Paris Saint-Germain is holding a huge advantage with 7 points, 2 points more than the two opponents. PSG will face Dortmund in the final round, while Newcastle United and AC Milan will have to play a "life and death" match.
PSG will officially qualify and take first place in Group F if they beat Dortmund. Even if they lose, they will still advance if the match at the same time ends in a draw.
In the event of a draw, Paris Saint-Germain will still advance to the knockout stages if AC Milan beat Newcastle. At that time, PSG and Milan will have eight points, but the French representative has a better head-to-head record.
However, coach Luis Enrique's team cannot be complacent because the challenge at Signal Iduna Park is not easy at all, especially when Dortmund also needs a favorable result to win the top spot in the group.
In Group H , Barcelona has already won the right to continue with 12 points and only needs to draw with Antwerp in the final match to officially take the top spot in the group. This is considered not too difficult a task for coach Xavi Hernandez and his team when their opponents were eliminated early.
Meanwhile, the remaining match between Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk promises to be very dramatic, true to the nature of a "life and death" match.
Before this match, both Porto and Shakhtar Donetsk had 9 points and the chance to continue was divided equally between both teams.
Porto have a slight advantage with a win in the first leg (3-1 away win) and playing at home in this encounter. This means Porto only needs a draw to complete the goal.
Source
Comment (0)