The January first phase of the Champions League - for the first time in history, due to the expansion and change in the competition system, two rounds have been "skipped" to 2025.
In January, scores are settled, at least when it comes to the league stage, and the greats who played poorly in the fall no longer have the right to make mistakes.
But the problem is when two such giants, who are in trouble, meet each other - the clash between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, clubs backed by large Arab capital, will mark the seventh round matches.
As strange as this sounds - PSG, who are 25th in the table, in the relegation zone, welcome City, who are 22nd, one in the zone of teams going to the 1/16 finals.
And as incredible as it sounds - one of those two teams, the one that loses, will risk not being among the 24 teams that advance to the second stage.
The "Saints" are in bigger trouble, not only because they have one point less and are three places lower, but also because they have a tougher match in the next round - they are away to Stuttgart, while the "Citizens" welcome Club Brugge.
They brought They shout to Kvaracheli for 70 million euros, and they risk being eliminated from the Champions League - such is the situation in PSG before the arrival of the 2023 European champions.
Is it possible Luis Enrique to solve the problem?
- This is a special match, not only because of the importance of the match for both teams, but also because I will be fighting against a friend, with whom I have played for many years, and we have also crossed paths as coaches - said Luis Enrique.
He and Pep Guardiola They played together in Barcelona and the Spanish national team, and then both were European champions with Barça as coaches.
PSG and City also met in the semi-finals of the Champions League (2020/21 season), and tonight they are fighting - for survival, in the literal sense of the word.
- I hope we meet again, but somewhere in the later stages of the competition, when the trophy will be at stake - added Enrique.
For that to happen, they have to win tonight, or at least not lose - otherwise, the team from the City of Light could find itself in big trouble.
"This is a new format of the Champions League and no one could have predicted, for example, that City would have so few points ahead of the last two rounds. But that's football. We don't know yet how many points we will need to be among the 24 teams, maybe we will know after this match. In any case, it's a strange situation, we should have beaten Atletico and PSV at home, but we didn't and now we have to get out of here," Enrique added.
It's far from all roses for City, and Guardiola's team will try to make up for the huge gap in the championship caused by the unprecedented crisis in the Champions League.
But first, they need to secure a place among the top 24 teams.
- We are slowly coming back. We need to regroup, look back at the period in which we made big mistakes and start again. But we are coming back - said Guardiola, whose team celebrated a 6-0 away win over Ipswich on Saturday.
One of the big names that also didn't shine during the fall is Real Madrid. However, the team Carlo Ancelotti With the victory over Atalanta in Bergamo, they have reached their ninth point and, realistically, are no longer afraid of relegation. And their schedule is in their favor - tonight they face Salzburg, who have only three points, and then they travel to Brest.
Ancelotti revealed a new goal before the final two rounds.
- I think we still have a chance to be among the top eight. That's why it's important that we win tonight - said the Italian.
Teams that are ranked from first to 8th place go directly to the round of 9, unlike teams from 24th to XNUMXth place who will face each other in the play-off round.
It's been getting easier for Real since it started working. Killian Mbape.
- The problem was mental. I didn't come to Real to play badly. I had to change something. I also started working harder. All of that is bringing results, but I believe we are only at the beginning of a successful journey - said the Frenchman.
Milan welcomes Girona, Inter travels to Prague to face Sparta, and Dinamo Zagreb desperately needs another point to advance to the round of 1. They are unlikely to snatch it tonight, on their debut. Fabio Cannavaro - they are visiting Arsenal at the Emirates.
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