Author: Crazy

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The inaugural Swiss-style Champions League format has already proved to be highly unpredictable.

But there are still three rounds of league phase matches to be played and no team’s fate is yet set in stone.

To achieve automatic qualification into the round of 16, teams must find themselves within the top eight of the league phase table.

Those in ninth to 24th enter a round of two-legged play-offs in February, with the winners taking the other eight spots.

Teams that finish anywhere from 25th to 36th will be eliminated from this season’s competition, with no access to the Europa League.

Champions League league phase table in full

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how the big hitters are faring in the competition…

Liverpool

Current position: 1st
Remaining fixtures: Girona (a), Lille (h), PSV (a)

Liverpool are not only floating on air in the Premier League and in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, they are outright leaders in the Champions League with a perfect record of five wins from five and just one goal conceded. To see them miss out on a top-eight spot from here seems as though it would be highly unlikely.

Arsenal

Current position: 7th
Remaining fixtures: Monaco (h), Dinamo Zagreb (h), Girona (a)

Arsenal’s defensive record has been impeccable, too, but an opening draw against Atalanta and the 1-0 defeat away at Inter Milan in early November means they sit seventh only on goal difference and are far from assured of finishing in the top eight. However, their final two opponents currently sit 23rd and 30th in the league phase table.

Aston Villa

Current position: 9th
Remaining fixtures: RB Leipzig (a), Monaco (a), Celtic (h)

Aston Villa’s first Champions League campaign in over 40 years has gone swimmingly so far and they even topped the league phase table after three games, having won all three without conceding. Like Arsenal, they sit inside the top 10, but form has dipped at the wrong time and Unai Emery’s side have won just one of their last eight in all competitions.

Man City

Current position: 17th
Remaining fixtures: Juventus (a), Paris Saint-Germain (a), Club Brugge (h)

Are Man City in crisis? It’s the question on everyone’s lips at the moment, given Pep Guardiola’s side have now gone six games without a win in all competitions. The latest came in the Champions League on Tuesday night, when they blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 at home to Feyenoord. The 2022/23 winners are two points off the top eight at the moment, but have time to claw their way back.

Celtic

Current position: 20th
Remaining fixtures: Dinamo Zagreb (a), Young Boys (h), Aston Villa (a)

Aside from the 7-1 thumping away at Borussia Dortmund in October, Celtic have more than held their own in the Champions League, with a draw against reigning Europa League champions Atalanta and a convincing win at home to RB Leipzig perhaps the most impressive of the bunch. Hopes of at least a top-24 finish are increasing by the week.

Barcelona

Current position: 3rd
Remaining fixtures: Borussia Dortmund (a), Benfica (a), Atalanta (h)

Barcelona are flying in both LaLiga and the Champions League – but what has been most eye-catching is just how many goals they are scoring. In just 19 games across those competitions, they have scored 60 goals (42 in LaLiga, 18 in Champions League), which has naturally put them top of the scoring charts in both. Hansi Flick’s side are simply blowing teams away and, with 36-year-old Robert Lewandowski in such lethal form – he has 22 goals to his name already this term – it is hard to see them slowing down.

Real Madrid

Current position: 24th
Remaining fixtures: Atalanta (a), Red Bull Salzburg (a), Brest (a)

The same cannot be said for Barcelona’s old foes Real Madrid. It has been one of the biggest shocks of this season’s tournament to see last season’s winners lose not once but three times, most recently against Liverpool who are, arguably, the most in-form side in Europe right now. And with Atalanta and Brest both eyeing up a top-eight spot, it could get worse still in the New Year.

Borussia Dortmund

Current position: 4th
Remaining fixtures: Barcelona (h), Bologna (a), Shakhtar Donetsk (h)

Borussia Dortmund’s form in the Bundesliga this season has been consistently inconsistent – they have alternated between a win and a defeat in each of their last nine games at the time of writing – but the same cannot be said in the Champions League. Granted, aside from Real Madrid, Nuri Sahin’s side could have faced tougher opposition, but they have asserted their dominance and got the job done each time, which has put them in a great position to finish in the top eight.

Bayern Munich

Current position: 13th
Remaining fixtures: Shakhtar Donetsk (a), Feyenoord (a), Slovan Bratislava (h)

When Bayern Munich’s 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the opening round of fixtures set a new record for the Champions League’s highest-scoring game, it seemed they would cruise through. Defeats away at Aston Villa and Barcelona, however, brought them right back down to Earth. The likelihood of a top-24 spot has since increased with professional 1-0 wins over Benfica and Paris Saint-Germain for the Bundesliga leaders.

Paris Saint-Germain

Current position: 25th
Remaining fixtures: Red Bull Salzburg (a), Man City (h), Stuttgart (a)

While PSG have lost just twice in their last 46 Ligue 1 matches, last season’s Champions League semi-finalists have struggled this term and are perhaps the competition’s biggest underachievers. Only three teams have scored fewer than their tally of three and they have lost three of their last four after beating Girona 1-0 in the opening round of fixtures. They must make the most of matches against fellow strugglers Red Bull Salzburg and Stuttgart – and also hope for a bit of luck – to have any chance of avoiding early elimination.

When are the 2024/25 Champions League knockout stages?

• Knockout round play-offs: February 11/12 and February 18/19, 2025
• Round of 16: March 4/5 and March 11/12, 2025
• Quarter-finals: April 8/9 and April 15/16, 2025
• Semi-finals: April 29/30 and May 6/7, 2025
• Final: May 31, 2025

When and where is the 2025 Champions League final?

The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League season will take place in Munich at the Allianz Arena on May 31, 2025.

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It is late night at Eyupspor’s impressive training facility and Arda Turan is working out how to mastermind another victory for his team, the surprise package in Turkey. “It is in these moments I understand Diego Simeone even better,” he tells Sky Sports.

You will remember their time together at Atletico Madrid, shock title winners a decade ago. “We achieved things that seemed impossible,” says Turan. “Ahead of perhaps the strongest Barcelona and Real Madrid teams in history. We created a fantastic culture.”

Simeone was the architect, with Turan thriving among his dogs of war. “I was deeply impressed by his work ethic. Simeone may be the hardest-working person I have ever met in my life.” Now, Turan is following that path and already building a reputation.

The list of influences from his playing days is eclectic, partly because he was something of a conundrum as a midfielder. A supreme young talent at Galatasaray, with an almost nonchalant flair to his game, he shone nevertheless within Simeone’s strict structure.

“He was the first to take me out of my comfort zone. He was the person who challenged me the most, motivated me to go beyond my limits. He made me see the game not just offensively, but as a whole. Fighting and struggling are also important parts of football,” Turan says.

He adds: “Tactically speaking, I learned so much from Simeone about the team’s positioning, its compactness, how to move as a unit in defence, pressing structures, defending in a 4-4-2 formation, how to prevent those passes between the lines.”

But he traded Atletico for Barcelona in 2015, sitting out six months in his prime to make the deal happen as Barca were under a transfer embargo. “Even today, I feel proud of being part of Barcelona.” That too is part of what makes Turan the coach he is today.

“I learned a lot from Fatih Terim about building player relationships,” he says. “And I must mention Oscar ‘El Profe’ Ortega regarding pre-season preparations and Mono Burgos for his set-piece organisation. But, for attacking football, I take Luis Enrique as the model.

“I knew that I would go through an adaptation period after Atletico Madrid. There were different players and a different football philosophy. At the time, I had joined perhaps the strongest offensive line-up in the world. The best players in the world were there.”

Alongside Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, Turan still contributed. “I believe I made a significant contribution, especially in my second season.” There were 13 goals that year but he left when Ernesto Valverde took over. “We never built that connection.”

The aim, as one might expect, is to fuse all these aspects into his own coaching vision. “I am trying to create my own unique style.” A team with the defensive mentality of that Atletico team combined with the attacking flair of Barcelona feels like fantasy football.

But his adventure with Eyupspor has been startlingly successful. He took charge in April of last year and guided the club to the second-tier title in his first full season with five weeks to spare. This is their first year as a Super Lig club and they sit fourth in the table.

“We did not plan to take over a club mid-season,” explains Turan. “My goal was to start with a pre-season, where I would have the time to implement my philosophy. But when the offer came, and after seeing the dreams of the president during our conversation, I accepted.

“From outside it might have seemed like a risk, but I wanted to start by challenging myself.” Eyupspor are well backed, president Murat Ozkaya spending to transform this team from the outskirts of Istanbul. But Turan has clearly outperformed expectations.

“It is a better position than most football fans expected. Tomorrow, this ranking might change. We might be in a better or lower position. But we will not stop playing our own football or improving every day. My team and I are trying to build a culture at this club,” he says.

Turan’s vision is to professionalise the passion of Turkish football, introducing concepts established at some of Europe’s biggest clubs. “I want to create a culture in my country where systems, formations and the dynamics of football are dominant,” he explains.

“Only in this way can we create a football culture. I am talking about a dream here. Something we can and should do together. We have very important stars who have played in major clubs around the world, and they still do. But we can do more.

“At the very least, I want to contribute to the creation of this culture in my own way. I want discussions about the game, discussions about tactics, discussions on how to develop the game, and debates on how to advance the culture and economy of football.

“I am working to build a football identity and football culture at Eyupspor on my own behalf. I am trying to create a culture with the analysis department, the strength and conditioning team, the medical team, the psychologist and the communication team.

“I am also working hard to ensure that this club has a corporate stance outside of the field. Our training facilities, the technologies we use. We are trying to bring these as close to world standards as possible within our means. This is what I mean by change.”

What is striking is that Eyupspor dominated possession in winning promotion. “When you look on the field, you can see the identity of Eyupspor.” They have had to adapt a little in the top division but, Turan insists, those same principles underpin his work.

“You have to do both sides of the game,” he says. “We are now competing at a higher level. We have opponents with bigger budgets and more fan support. Therefore, sometimes you need to get behind the ball and successfully apply the defensive principles of football.

“But that does not mean we’ll give up our possession game. There have been moments where we achieved possession rates as high as 70 per cent. But of course, we also try to play a more balanced game. It is not always possible to have the possession.”

A pragmatist with principles, Turan styles himself as a moderniser. “I also see this philosophy in the new generation of coaches,” he says. “To be ready as a coach, you must closely follow world football, the trends, the training techniques, the formations.”

He adds: “Football evolves quickly. It is important to stay dynamic, follow everything and adapt accordingly. Nowadays it is necessary to make tactical revisions based on the opponent, and sometimes make those revisions in moments within the match.”

At just 37 and making an impact already – given Turan’s ambition – his time in Turkey could be just the start. “When I feel ready, and most importantly, when the right project that I believe in comes along, I would certainly like to take the next step,” he says.

As for the ambitions for Eyupspor, he talks of establishing the team as a “permanent presence” in the top division and dreams of building a team that can compete in Europe. “We know it’s not easy, but in life everything you dream of is always difficult.”

Another lesson learned from Diego Simeone.

At 23, Sergino Dest has already experienced the highs and lows of football. After the dream move from Ajax to Barcelona came the “mistake” in Milan. He was then flying at PSV before an anterior cruciate ligament injury brought him down to earth again.

“Unfortunately, my life path went in a different direction to what it should be going,” he tells Sky Sports. But the message from Dest is that the journey is not over. The talent remains and as he returns to full fitness, the ambitions for the future are still sky high.

There is a World Cup in the United States on the horizon. “That is going to be special.” Before that, there is work to do in Eindhoven as PSV look to retain the Eredivisie title that Dest helped to win last season. From there, the plan is to get back to the big leagues.

“Obviously, PSV is a great club, but I have a lot of ambitions and I know what I can do. I feel that my level needs to be in the top five leagues, so I am working really hard for that. I have been in a lot of beautiful places. I want to get back to these beautiful places.”

In the meantime, he is working his way back and keeping busy. “Always busy, man.” He is speaking to Sky Sports fresh from opening a football court in his home-town of Almere, just outside Amsterdam. To the children there, his success is an inspiration.

“I had been thinking about this years ago, but I think this was the right time for me to do it. It is amazing to create your own legacy, putting my own field, my own name out there in the world. And the kids here, they love it. That it is something big and I am proud of it.”

It is an impressive sight in Almere. “It is something new around here and I want to motivate them to go outside and play.” It is not so long ago that Dest was the young boy out there honing his skills. “Yeah, not so long ago,” he agrees. “But also a long time ago.”

There it is, that sense of a career in flux. The skills that lit up those street games in Almere took him all the way to El Clasico and to a World Cup in Qatar, following his much-discussed decision to represent the United States instead of the Netherlands.

Only now, given his injury, is he coming to terms with all that he won – and all that he lost. Dest achieved the dream absurdly early. Plucked from Erik ten Hag’s Ajax, he found himself thrust into Barcelona’s first-team alongside Lionel Messi while still a teenager.

Now, he is readjusting to life back in the Eredivisie at a time when the expectation was that his career would be on the rise. He wants to go again, talks of being eager not to waste time because he can still improve. But memories of Camp Nou linger inside him.

Looking back, it impacted his loan move to AC Milan.

“Milan for me was a big mistake. Obviously, it is a beautiful club but I was not ready at that time to go there, mentally. At that moment, my heart was still in Barcelona and I could not really focus on the next thing. I think that is why it went the way it went.”

Dest made only 14 appearances for Milan that season after what had been a whirlwind two years at Barca. “Everything went really fast but I enjoyed every little minute of it. Going into that dressing room, playing against Real Madrid, winning the Copa del Rey.”

Lessons from Messi

He can always say that he played with Messi during the legend’s last ever season at Barcelona. “I was not really thinking about it like that at the time, but that is crazy if you think about it.” Seeing Messi and Antoine Griezmann work up close was an education.

“Watching them in training and in games, you try to improve your game by learning what that they do that make them so good.” What, exactly? “A lot of the time, it is by delaying. They see where they need to run or pass but it is different. They see the bigger picture.”

He explains: “Sometimes if you delay the play, it looks like you are going to pass it but in the last second you change your mind, adjust your body and with one touch you pass it to the other player. That is unpredictable for the opponent and so difficult to defend.”

More than a full-back

Dest has plenty of special skills of his own. Gary Neville once said that nobody grows up dreaming of being a full-back but Dest is no ordinary full-back. He is fond of getting his best bits clipped up for his social channels and takes pride in those flicks and tricks.

“Look, even with all these wingers, I can still make highlights videos – and I am a full-back! It is possible. And I enjoy it,” he says.

“You can make every position a nice position. You just have to make it your own. I play with flair, I give it my own style. Obviously, I need to improve on certain things. I can be better. But I feel like the way I do it is about flair but it is also about being functional.

“You see, it is not that difficult for me to bypass a man. I feel like these tricks that people say are too much are okay because they are actually functional. It makes you creative. If you can create when the game is locked, your dribble can create that two vs one.”

Pushing on at PSV

Peter Bosz, the head coach at PSV who is doing such an impressive job, understands this. “He just loves me as a player, man. He has a lot of confidence in me, he is patient and he trusts me. That is the best thing you can have. And he pushes me to the limits.”

Those kids in Almere were shocked when he chose to join PSV. “They could not believe it!” But Ajax were in no shape for him to return. “It is a bit chaotic at the club and at this moment I have had enough chaotic. I need something stable and calm,” he explains.

Even so, there are fond memories of the famous old club, and words of support for Ten Hag, particularly his man-management skills after he gave Dest time off to decide his international future. “He was very kind to me. I thought he was a really good coach.”

Dest settled on the United States, where his father was born, and remains utterly convinced it was the right move for him. “That was the best choice of my life. I will never ever regret it. I have had so many beautiful experiences and I feel important there.”

It is a recurring theme of the conversation. After the rise and the feelings of rejection, there is the need to be valued. “PSV was there in a difficult moment. They still had faith and believed in me, so that was important and I am really thankful for that,” he says.

“It was difficult mentally because you do not want to go back to the Eredivisie if you have played for these big clubs. My mentality was that I was going to kill it and get back up again. But then, unfortunately, came the injury. It was all sunshine until the injury.

“I have an amazing season, became a champion and could not even play the last game where we became champions. It was frustrating. Since then, it has been a lot of hours in the gym to get every muscle to a strong level again. It takes time but it is going well.

“Maybe it is good for me to be stable at one club a little longer because I kept moving every year to another club. But I also do not want to waste time. I want to get the maximum out of my career.” The message from Dest is clear. He is just getting started.

“I am glad that I had this path. I made a lot of mistakes that I will not make in the future. It is just all experience, man. I accept it. I cannot change it. This is just the path I have to follow at this moment. And better things will come. I know I am going to come back.”