Champions League Matchday 8 brings the drama with PSG and Manchester City at risk of early eliminations

Matchday Mayhem is finally here! The frenetic finale to the UEFA Champions League’s first-ever league phase is upon us. I’m Pardeep Cattry with the latest ahead of a busy Wednesday in Europe.

📺 Footy fix

All times U.S./Eastern

Wednesday, Jan. 29
🇪🇺 UCL: Brest vs. Real Madrid, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🇪🇺 UCL: Manchester City vs. Club Brugge, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🇪🇺 UCL: Stuttgart vs. Paris Saint-Germain, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🇪🇺 UCL: The Golazo Show, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+

Thursday, Jan. 30
🇪🇺 UEL: The Golazo Show, 2 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network
🇪🇺 UEL: FCSB vs. Manchester United, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+
🇪🇺 UEL: Tottenham vs. Elsborg, 3 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+

Don’t miss any of the Champions League. As always, you can catch all of our coverage across Paramount+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network all season long.

⚽ The Forward Line

❓ Manchester City’s identity crisis

High-stakes games will take place all across Europe on Wednesday, but few feel more consequential than Manchester City’s clash with Club Brugge. The English champions’ unusually poor season has resulted in a moment of crisis management on Matchday 8 – win, and they slip into the top 24 and take part in the knockouts. Anything less than all three points, though, will send the 2023 Champions League winners to their earliest exit since the 2012-13 season.

The make-or-break nature of Wednesday’s match encapsulates the remarkable downturn they have experienced this season, which stems from the day Ballon d’Or winner Rodri tore his ACL. Several months on, the former serial winners look like a shadow of themselves – and not only because Rodri has been unavailable. As Jimmy Conrad noted on Morning Footy, Pep Guardiola’s side are experiencing an identity crisis that has not only seen them relinquish their ability to dominate, but has seen the manager make some unexpected tactical choices.

• Conrad: “They’ve been winning so much. At some point, as a normal human being, as a team – collectively and individually – you’ve done everything. … You guys did it. Can you do it again? And that gets exhausting if you don’t refresh your team, and I think that Pep Guardiola stuck with some of the guys that maybe it was time to move on from, and they made the moves now in January that they should have made in the summer. If they made those moves in the summer, maybe there would have been more of a fresh feel to their team but as it was, it felt a bit stale, and now they’re using tactics to beat Chelsea where the goalkeeper’s sending long balls to Erling Haaland and you’ve got [Josko] Gvardiol who’s being their best attacking player. I’m like, what universe are we living in?”

Guardiola’s unglamorous approach against Chelsea actually worked – they notched a 3-1 win on Saturday, perhaps their first statement win since their downward turn began in the fall. Though it comes as little surprise that Guardiola would eventually find a solution for his team’s issues, the shock is that he’s elected to use the longball strategy. The approach comes with questions in the short and long term, like whether or not Guardiola will choose to play that way against Brugge on Wednesday and how successful that strategy will be in the long run.

The stakes being what they are, Wednesday’s game will be unlike any City have entered in the last decade and change – and a unique experience for Guardiola in his glittering managerial career. Avoiding a crisis is not something he has genuine experience with, but Wednesday’s game will offer a real answer on how Guardiola might respond with his back against the wall – and whether or not a turnaround is in the cards for City this season.

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🔗  Midfield Link Play

🇪🇺 High stakes across Europe

The dramatic results over the course of the league phase means that just about every team has something to play for, be it a spot in the top eight, top 24, or preferable seeding for a new-look knockout bracket.

The long list of noteworthy fixtures includes Paris Saint-Germain’s trip to Stuttgart, which – like Manchester City’s clash with Club Brugge – is a match between two sides hoping to book a spot in the top 24. PSG’s odds of making the next round improved with last week’s 4-2 win over City, which put them in 22nd place heading into Matchday 8. Jonathan Johnson lays out what both Stuttgart and PSG need on Wednesday, which teases a competitive match ahead in Germany.

• Johnson on Stuttgart: “The Germans need to avoid defeat to reach the playoffs while a win would move them above PSG. In the event of a stalemate, two of City, Brugge and Dinamo will finish below them. A loss for Stuttgart will see them go out if City or Dinamo are victorious.”

• Johnson on Paris Saint-Germain: “Dinamo’s hugely negative goal difference means that Luis Enrique’s side only need to draw to reach the playoffs – they would definitely finish above their hosts. A loss would endanger PSG’s chances as they will drop below the Germans with City and Sporting likely to win at home and move above them.”

Looking at the race for the top 24 alone means paying attention to several different scorelines at once is a must. Nine teams are in the mix for six unclaimed spots, a list that includes City, PSG and their opponents on Wednesday. 26th place Dinamo Zagreb are unlikely to pop into the top 24 considering the -8 goal differential they currently have, but the other eight teams still feel very much in play. That includes Sporting Lisbon, who sit in 23rd coming into Matchday 8 and have one of the more favorable fixtures on Wednesday – a game at home against the already-eliminated Bologna.

• Johnson on Sporting: “Owing to Dinamo’s weak goal difference and Stuttgart meeting PSG, Sporting need to simply avoid defeat against eliminated Bologna to reach the playoffs. Even a loss, as long as it is not a heavy one by three or four goals, will see them through if Stuttgart lose or City fail to beat Brugge. A PSG loss by a bigger margin than Sporting’s defeat could even do.”

Further up the table, the same is true. While Liverpool and Barcelona are locked into spots in the top eight, most of the 16 other teams who already booked a spot in the top 24 could sneak into the top eight and earn direct passageway to the round of 16. Watching the table change will be just as entertaining as the games themselves on Wednesday as an unprecedentedly chaotic day awaits in Europe.

🔗  Top Stories

🇪🇺 UCL preview: Here’s what at stake for each team heading into Matchday 8, best bets on Wednesday’s action, the players to watch, what to expect from Italian teams and what we’ve learned from UEFA over the last few months. Plus, a look at how the chaos of the league phase finale recreates the magic of American sports’ playoff push.

🇸🇦 Comings and goings: Neymar has officially called time on his spell at Al Hilal ahead of a reported move to Santos, while Al-Nassr is reportedly inching closer to moves for Victor Boniface and Jhon Duran.

🇺🇸 NWSL transfer news: Angel City’s Alyssa and Gisele Thompson signed new deals with the club, while Crystal Dunn and Gotham parted ways after just one year. Plus, a look at reports linking Trinity Rodman to a move away from the U.S. and why Naomi Girma’s record transfer fee to Chelsea is a sign of the women’s game’s growth – and not a cause for concern for the NWSL.

🆕 MLS’ continental competition plan: MLS sorted its 30 teams into different continental competitions ahead of the new year, ensuring that no club plays in more than two extra tournaments in 2025.

💰  The Back Line

💵 Best bets

• UEFA Champions League: Manchester City vs. Club Brugge, Wednesday, 3 p.m.
  💰 THE PICK: Phil Foden to score (+140) – Manchester City need goals on Wednesday, so expect several of the team’s stars to play a big role as they aim to avoid an early exit from the Champions League. That list of players could include Phil Foden, who is finally finding a little bit of form and is just a few days removed from scoring in the team’s big win over Chelsea.
• UEFA Champions League: Stuttgart vs. Paris Saint-Germain, Wednesday, 3 p.m.
  💰 THE PICK: Goncalo Ramos to score (+200) – Paris Saint-Germain may have snuck into the top 24 before Matchday 8, but the French champions do not have a lot of wiggle room on Wednesday and will also need to prioritize goalscoring in Germany. The good news is that PSG are coming off a commanding 4-2 win over Manchester City last week so some of the standouts from that game – like Goncalo Ramos – might step up again this week.

For more picks, predictions, expert tips and the latest betting news, don’t miss out on CBSSports.com’s betting home page.   

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