Four rounds have been played, there are still as many, and the biggest favorites for the title in the Champions League cannot find the right rhythm - the 4th round of the league will be remembered for the debacle of Manchester City in Lisbon, the convincing defeat of the European champions Real in Madrid against Milan, but and after the victory of Inter over Arsenal, firecrackers of Barcelona in Belgrade...
The situation in the upper part of the table is anything but unexpected. Liverpool is at the top and is the only one with all four victories, and 10 points have four teams - Inter and three "small teams" such as Monaco, Sporting and Brest.
How much the new format of the Champions League, at least in the opening part of the season, turned the football map of Europe is shown by the situation in Real - after four rounds, the "royal club" has six points and is 18th in the table, behind Dinamo Zagreb, Celtic, Lille...
Real beat Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund at home, lost to Lille in France and Milan at home, and until the end of the league part they have three matches away from Madrid - and it can already be said that Carlo Ancelotti's team is not in a good position for Top 8.
In the next round (November 27), Real will visit Liverpool, then Atalanta, and until the end they will play at home with Salzburg and on the side against Brest.
- Should we be worried? Of course, it is clear to everyone that we are not the best version of ourselves right now and we have to find the reasons. We don't behave as a team, that's why we concede so many goals - Ancelotti said after the 3:1 loss to Milan.
Real has conceded 10 goals in the last four games - four of them were scored by Barcelona in the "el clasico" ten days ago.
- Everyone talks about the problem with Kylian Mbappe or Vinicius Junior, about whether and how much they run. But something else is at stake - I worry because we allow our rivals to always be dangerous and to almost always enter chances that are "half-goal". Everything has to change, and above all the work ethic - Ancelotti added.
It is not only Real's path to the Top 8 that is complicated. Bayern has the same number of points, while Arsenal, Juventus, City, Bayer, Lille, Dinamo and Celtic have one more point - the last trio, after four rounds, few expected in the first 16 teams in the table out of 36.
As is known, the eight first-placed teams go directly to the round of 9, and the teams placed from 24th to XNUMXth go to the playoffs. The giants want to avoid the latter, but now it is clear that a good part of the favorites will have to go to the barrage...
In the first four rounds, Paris Saint-Germain completely failed, collecting four points and scoring three goals. He only beat Girona at the start (and that with an own goal in the very finish), lost against Arsenal in London and the night before last against Atlético at the "Park of the Princes", with a draw at home with PSV.
The "Saints" do not have a good schedule either, because they are visiting Bayern, Salzburg and Stuttgart, and in the City of Light they play only one more match - and that is against City.
It was the victory over PSG that opened up a lot for Atlético, who have six points and, at least on paper, a good schedule until the end of the league. In the next round, Diego Simeone's team visits Sparta in Prague, and until the end they will also meet with Slovan and Bayer in Madrid, and with Salzburg in Austria.
The English currently have two representatives in the Top 8 - Liverpool and Aston Villa, as well as the French (Monaco and Brest), and one each from the Italians (Inter), the Spanish (Barcelona), the Portuguese (Sporting) and the Germans (Borussia).
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