Champions League teams chase 10 points tally

LONDON (AP):

The first Champions League team will reach 10 points this week and likely ensure advancing to the knockout stage as the untested 36-team standings format reaches the midway point.

Either Liverpool or Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen will have 10 points after they meet at Anfield on Tuesday when Manchester City also can do it by winning at Sporting Lisbon, which is still being coached by Rúben Amorim until he joins Manchester United one week later.

English teams hold the top three places in the table, with recent European champions Man City and Liverpool looking up at surprise leaders Aston Villa.

Villa, the 1982 European Cup winners, go for a fourth straight win Wednesday at Club Brugge.

Much further down the standings, the two teams with the most titles in the competition’s 70-season history – both when coached by Carlo Ancelotti – meet in Spain.

Record 15-time champions Real Madrid hosting AC Milan, with seven titles, is a clash on Tuesday of the 12th and 25th-placed teams after three of the eight rounds.

The new format sends only the top eight teams directly to the round of 16 in January. Teams that finish Nos. 9-16 are seeded in the knockout playoffs round in February against teams ranked 17th to 24th. Winners of those two-leg encounters advance to the round of 16 in March.

UEFA’s preseason simulations suggested as few as eight points from eight games would be enough to enter the knockout phase.

Still, upset losses so far for Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern showed how predictions can be upended.

Unbalanced schedules

All 36 teams got a balanced slate of opponents by drawing two teams from each of four seeding pots based on UEFA competition results over the past five years.

The order of fixtures, however, can be lopsided, and Leipzig languishes with zero points after losses against three high-ranked opponents. Leipzig now play at Celtic, from the lower-ranked No. 3 seeds.

Sporting also are a pot 3 team, giving Man City a third lower-ranked opponent in the first half of their programme.

Liverpool have excelled despite a front-loaded fixture list. Leverkusen are their third high-ranked opponents, and next come Real Madrid at Anfield on November 27.

Atletico Madrid have underachieved in 27th place and go to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, but the three-time beaten finalists have one of the softest schedules to come.

Sliding doors

Xabi Alonso could have been in the home team dugout Tuesday. Liverpool offered its former star midfielder, a Champions League winner in the epic 2005 final, the chance to succeed Jürgen Klopp this season.

Alonso opted to stay at Leverkusen and take the unbeaten Bundesliga champions into the Champions League. Liverpool turned to Feyenoord’s Arne Slot, who is having a historically good start with the Premier League leaders.