The Champions League had a revamp for the 2024/25 season and halfway through (we’re four games in), the new League Phase of the competition, things are starting to take shape – and not in the way some clubs appreciate. Once the initial eight games have been played, the top eight sides in the 36-team league will move to the Round of 16, while those sides that finish in ninth to 24th in the table will face a two-legged knockout play-off to join the other eight sides in the Round of 16.
Champions League After Four Games
After four games, some of the biggest sides in Europe are struggling to make their mark on the competition and could face the indignity of being dumped out of Europe (as there are no parachute places up for grabs in the Europa League!). Later, we’ll detail some of the sides who usually compete for European glory but who are struggling this season. But first, let’s take a quick look at how the League Phase of the Champions League stands after four matches.
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 12 |
| 2 | Sporting CP | 10 |
| 3 | Monaco | 10 |
| 4 | Brest | 10 |
| 5 | Inter Milan | 10 |
| 6 | Barcelona | 9 |
| 7 | Borussia Dortmund | 9 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 9 |
| 9 | Atalanta | 8 |
| 10 | Manchester City | 7 |
| 11 | Juventus | 7 |
| 12 | Arsenal | 7 |
| 13 | Bayer Leverkusen | 7 |
| 14 | Lille | 7 |
| 15 | Celtic | 7 |
| 16 | Dinamo Zagreb | 7 |
| 17 | Bayern Munich | 6 |
| 18 | Real Madrid | 6 |
| 19 | Benfica | 6 |
| 20 | AC Milan | 6 |
| 21 | Feyenoord | 6 |
| 22 | Club Brugge | 6 |
| 23 | Atletico Madrid | 6 |
| 24 | PSV | 5 |
| 25 | Paris Saint-Germain | 4 |
| 26 | Sparta Prague | 4 |
| 27 | Stuttgart | 4 |
| 28 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 4 |
| 29 | Girona | 3 |
| 30 | Red Bull Salzburg | 3 |
| 31 | Bologna | 1 |
| 32 | RB Leipzig | 0 |
| 33 | Sturm Graz | 0 |
| 34 | Young Boys | 0 |
| 35 | Red Star Belgrade | 0 |
| 36 | Slovan Bratislava | 0 |
As you can see, of the biggest sides in Europe – that is to say, those who regularly compete for Champions League glory – only Liverpool, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan are looking solid in the top eight. Relative minnows Sporting, Monaco, Brest and Aston Villa make up the current top eight. Though all are big clubs in their own right, none would be classed as among of the biggest in Europe.
Teams to Watch Out For
There are a few other big names in the next echelon (those teams finishing in ninth to 24th positions would face a play-off). These include Man City, Arsenal, Juventus, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, but all these sides have lost at least one game in the competition so far and things are far from guaranteed.
Multiple champions Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Real Madrid have each lost two matches, and sit on just six points from their four matches. There’s certainly a chance one or more of these giants could slip out of the top 24 if they don’t get themselves into gear.
PSG Struggling
Of the big boys though, it is Paris Saint-Germain who are struggling more than most: currently in 25th position in the table, they have mustered just a single win along with one draw from their opening four games to leave them on just four points. On one level, some people might not view PSG as one of the European heavyweights given they’ve never won the Champions League (or its predecessor the European Cup) and have only made the final once (which they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich in 2019/20).
The levels of investment that have been poured into the club in recent years would certainly suggest that the owners would be far from happy if the side didn’t even make it to the Round of 16. Let’s take a closer look at the biggest underperformers in this season’s Champions League so far.
Paris Saint-Germain
It could be argued that, given how much cash they’ve splashed, PSG have been the perennial underperformers in European football. Despite having something of a stranglehold on their domestic league (they’ve won Ligue 1 on 10 occasions from 2012/13 to last season), they’ve only ever won two European trophies: the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1995/96 and the much-maligned Intertoto Cup in 2001. Given that the club have reportedly spent almost €2 billion on players since 2011, their lack of a European trophy must be rather frustrating for the fans, to say the least.
In this season’s Champions League, PSG started on a positive note when they edged past Girona 1-0 in Paris. But in October they went down 2-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates and could only manage a 1-1 draw against PSV Eindhoven on home soil. Things got even worse in November as they suffered a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid, leaving the Parisians with plenty of work to do to even make the play-off for the last 16.
Looking at PSG’s next four games in the Champions League, there are two very winnable games, but two that could prove extremely tough. Next up, they travel to Bayern Munich, which will be far from easy. Then they visit Salzburg before hosting Manchester City and finishing with a trip to Stuttgart. Getting something from the games against Man City and Bayern could prove crucial, and they’ll need to win the other two. If not, PSG could be booted out of Europe at the end of the League Phase.
AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and Real Madrid
Bayern (16th), Real Madrid (17th) and Milan (20th) have a whopping 28 European titles between them, so if any of these three failed to make it to the Round of 16, it would be big news. But what if all three failed? That would perhaps call into question whether the new format ‘works’. Although, on the flip side, if these giants missed out, it would certainly open doors for smaller clubs like Brest or Aston Villa, who would be only too happy to take advantage.
Here are the remaining four games for each of these clubs in the League Phase of the Champions League:
- Bayern Munich – Paris Saint-Germain (H), Shakhtar Donetsk (A), Feyenoord (A), Slovan Bratislava (H)
- Real Madrid – Liverpool (A), Atalanta (A), Salzburg (H), Brest (A)
- AC Milan – Slovan Bratislava (A), Red Star Belgrade (H), Girona (H), Dinamo Zagreb (A)
Ordinarily, the cream with rise to the top in league-based competitions. But given that many of the smaller clubs see this new format as a fantastic opportunity to make their mark, we think some of the biggest clubs mentioned could indeed struggle to progress to the next phase. If that’s the case, we wonder whether UEFA might have a complete rethink of the format (under pressure from the biggest clubs!). But before that, there’s a great chance for the likes of Villa, Brest and Sporting to have a real go at this season’s Champions League. Could one of them go all the way?