Manchester City is on the brink of a humiliating Champions League exit after a stunning loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, and Real Madrid is no longer at risk after routing Salzburg.
Man City blew a two-goal lead in a high-stakes clash of super-wealthy underachievers that PSG won 4-2 in Paris yet still could be eliminated alongside the English champion after the final round of games next week.
Only the top 24 in the 36-team standings will advance and Man City, the 2023 champion, will kick off in 25th place but will squeeze into the knockout playoffs round by beating Club Brugge.
“We will do everything there and if we don’t do it we don’t deserve it,” manager Pep Guardiola said of the game in Manchester in one week's time. Brugge needs just a draw to advance.
PSG rose to 22nd place to set up another tense challenge, at 24th-place Stuttgart which likely needs to win.
Early in the second half in Paris, it was Man City looking set to send PSG close to elimination by taking a two-goal lead. Jack Grealish, a halftime substitute, scored in the 50th minute then his pass across the goalmouth was deflected toward Erling Haaland for a second four minutes later.
Within six remarkable minutes PSG was level, from goals by Ousmane Dembélé and Bradley Barcola, and a stunning turnaround was completed in the 78th when Joao Neves headed the decisive goal. Gonçalo Ramos added a fourth in stoppage time.
After winning a record 15th European title last season, then signing France star Kylian Mbappé in the offseason, it probably should not have been such a drama for Real Madrid to reach the knockout stages in the new Champions League format.
But three losses in six games — to Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool — left Madrid in 22nd place at kickoff Wednesday, before swatting aside Salzburg 5-1 to rise into 16th.
Brazil stars Rodrygo and Vinícius Júnior each scored twice, either side of a goal for Kylian Mbappé, in a mismatch ahead of the teams meeting again in the FIFA Club World Cup, in Philadelphia on June 26.
Arsenal and Inter got expected wins to rise to third and fourth, respectively, though not sure yet to join Liverpool and Barcelona among the top-eight teams advancing direct to the round of 16.
Arsenal beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 and Inter won 1-0 at Sparta Prague that lifted both to 16 points, three clear of ninth-place Aston Villa.
AC Milan quietly went about its business rising to sixth place with a 1-0 win against Girona at San Siro, on a powerful strike in the first half by Rafael Leão.
Bayern Munich fell to a 3-0 defeat at Feyenoord and dropped to 15th in the mid-table morass of storied clubs — currently including Madrid and Juventus — who risk facing each other in the knockout playoff rounds in February.
The teams that finish Nos. 15-18 in the standings next week will be drawn against each other in the playoffs — for the right to face Liverpool and, likely, Barcelona in the round of 16.
Bayern is fortunate to have one of the easier-seeming final games, at home to Slovan Bratislava, which has lost seven straight.
Celtic secured its place in the knockout rounds by winning 1-0 against last-place Young Boys, the other team to lose seven times.
Leipzig ended its six-game losing run with a 2-1 win over Sporting Lisbon, though the champion of Portugal still is favored to advance. Shakhtar Donetsk stayed in contention — just — with a 2-0 win against Brest, which will be in the knockout phase.
All 36 teams will be in action at the same time next Wednesday in 18 games kicking off at the same time — 9 p.m. Central European Time (2000 GMT).
The top eight in the final standings get a break until March, waiting for the round of 16. Teams that finish from ninth to 24th enter the knockout playoffs. Those two-leg pairings are drawn Jan. 31 at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
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