Thursday, December 11, 2025, 1:29 p.m.
The Champions League closes for Christmas. The top European competition takes a break until January 21 with almost everything to be decided with two days left until the end of the league phase. There are only three teams that will have nothing or little at stake, beyond the money that each victory and each point earned brings. Above is Arsenal, the only one with a full record of victories and which has already secured its place among the eight best thanks to its 18 points, and below are Villarreal and Kairat Almaty, who with one point each have no chance of continuing in the competition after this first phase. The rest of the clubs in competition, 33, will have to do their homework in the two remaining days to achieve their respective objectives.
There are 19 teams – up to and including Bayer Leverkusen – that will fight to get into the top 8, or failing that, in the well-known ‘play in’ prior to the round of 16. Real Madrid and Atlético, seventh and eighth, are the Spaniards who have the best chance of avoiding a trap tie. More than anything because they depend on themselves to achieve it after adding 12 points in the first six days. Xabi Alonso’s men will host Monaco and travel to Lisbon to face Mourinho’s Benfica and by adding four points they could secure the objective, although it is always better not to tempt luck and achieve two wins. Something similar happens with Simeone’s team, who will face Galatasaray at the Metropolitano and Bodo Glimt at the Metropolitano to close the league phase.
It is more difficult for Barcelona to sneak into the top eight by not depending on themselves. The Blaugranas have 10 points after six games and in the last two days they will face Slavia Prague, in the Czech Republic, and Copenhagen at the Camp Nou, rivals who should win and if possible score goals to improve their goal difference, reach 16 points and wait for a blow from those at the top to sneak into the privileged eight.
Premier-League Fight
Barça is now fifteenth but two points from the direct classification since Inter, Real Madrid, and Atlético (sixth, seventh and eighth) have 12 points, like Liverpool, ninth on goal difference. The fourth Spaniard with options to get into the next phase is Athletic. After adding a golden point against PSG and totaling five, they are forced to add the six points that remain to be played against two difficult rivals such as Atalanta, in Bergamo, and Sporting de Portugal in San Mamés.
The classification leaves a curious detail. Only two English teams -Arsenal and Manchester City- are in the top 8, the same as the Italians and the Spanish, despite the superiority that the Premier teams have had in direct confrontations with those from the League. Of the ten matches that have taken place between teams from both competitions, nine have ended with an English victory and only one with a Spanish victory.
