Any upsets in the final CL week of 2024?

This week brings us the final round of CL fixtures for 2024 with the next round scheduled for the third week of January, since most of Europe’s top divisions will take a mid-season winter break. The jury is still out on the new format, it will take a couple of seasons to establish whether or not the new CL is an upgrade on what we have been used to over recent years.

The fact that there are more teams than ever before means more games, and that in turn explains why the initial League Phase will roll on into next year, a change from the previous way things were done when the old group stages were wrapped up before Christmas. 

With five games played of the eight, this upcoming round is round 6 and this is a good time to review the progress so far. The top eight teams are automatically qualified for the next round and as things stand it is Liverpool who lead the way with a maximum fifteen points, an excellent start to their European campaign to go along with their league form. Inter and Barcelona are next up, with Dortmund doing well in fourth. Serie A leaders Atalanta are in fifth spot with last year’s Bundesliga winners in sixth. Arsenal and Monaco round up the top eight places. 

Aston Villa are currently top of the second tier with three wins from their five matches, including a memorable home win over Bayern Munich. The likes of Bayern themselves as well as AC Milan, Manchester City, defending champions Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid are also in this second group of teams and will hope they can do enough in the next three matches to make it into ‘tier 1’.

There are a few surprises in the bottom group, who will be completely eliminated from Europe now with no drop down to the Europa League. French giants PSG are the big surprise here, with only one win and four points to their name so far. Real Madrid are only just out of the bottom group with six points and two wins from their five matches played and the likes of RB Leipzig and Girona will be amongst those hoping to drag themselves into the middle tier. 

This week’s fixtures are intriguing with a number of top quality matches on both days. Starting with Tuesday, leaders Liverpool travel to Spain to take on Girona in what has the potential to be a tricky match in the early kick-off. The top matches of the day take place later in the day though as Serie A leaders Atalanta host defending champions Real Madrid with the visitors desperate for a win to lift them up the table. Inter Milan travel to Leverkusen in a battle of two champions, with both teams currently doing well in the top eight of the table. RB Leipzig’s clash at home to Aston Villa is another intriguing match up with important consequences for both teams and PSG simply must pick up three points in their clash with Salzburg if they want to avoid the risk of being eliminated at the first hurdle in this new format. Bayern Munich are another of Europe’s giants that will be looking for three points and aiming to get into the top tier of teams as they travel to take on Shakhtar Donetsk. 

On Wednesday there are an equal number of big name clashes starting with the teams currently occupying third and fourth spot in the table as Barcelona travel to Dortmund in what is sure to be an exciting match up. The other highlight on Wednesday night is Juventus versus Manchester City. Both teams have had pretty underwhelming seasons in Europe so far and find themselves in 19th and 17th place respectively. The English champions, in particular, are having a season to forget with their domestic form seeing them a long way off from challenging for another title in the league. Atlético Madrid and AC Milan are both on nine points so far and both will be expecting wins against Slovan Bratislava and Crvena Zvezda respectively. Arsenal and Monaco have an almost identical record so far with the London team one point above their French opponents thanks to a one goal better goal difference. They will clash at the Emirates on Wednesday evening in another interesting tie.

Following this round of matches, there will only be two sets of fixtures left to play and we will have a good idea who is looking good and which teams are likely to face an early exit from Europe. On paper the pick of the matches are Atalanta vs Real Madrid, Dortmund against Barcelona and Juventus’s clash with Manchester City but, should those not quite live up to standard, there is certainly no shortage of great matches on what is set to be another excellent week of CL action. 

PS: Odds might have changed since the writing and publication of this article.

Last updated: 09.12.24