Europe’s top teams appear to have finally come to grips with the new-look Champions League.
The standings look very different heading into the fourth round of games compared to one year ago, when the new 36-team format debuted and the results were less predictable.
The top end of the table before Tuesday’s games is a list of unbeaten, high-earning teams led by Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, who meet Tuesday in the standout game at Parc des Princes.
A second blockbuster — fifth-place Real Madrid at 10th-place Liverpool — also opens the door slightly for teams outside the big five leagues to catch up.
The first team from outside the wealthy elite is Sporting Lisbon, which is tied for 11th place before going to Juventus. Qarabag in 13th is the highest-ranked genuine outsider in the competition and hosts Chelsea.
Some storied teams struggled in their first go at the expanded eight-game format that provides a broader range of opponents.
After three rounds last year, Aston Villa was atop the league standings after returning to the competition for the first time 41 years, and unheralded French club Brest was fifth. Neither qualified for this edition. Sporting held eighth place — which gets direct entry to the round of 16 — before then-coach Ruben Amorim’s team routed Manchester City 4-1 last Nov. 5.
One year ago, PSG was 19th and later risked elimination on the final matchday. Madrid was 12th having lost at Lille while Bayern was a shocking 23rd after back-to-back losses, at Villa then Barcelona.
Today, PSG, Bayern and Madrid are joined by Arsenal and Inter Milan with three straight wins. Those five have combined to score 52 goals and concede just six so far.
High-profile rematches
PSG-Bayern and Liverpool-Real Madrid were also fixtures last season, in the fifth round of games.
Then, PSG did not look a future champion, losing 1-0 in Munich with future Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé sent off weeks after he was left out of a loss at Arsenal. Still, that was before Désiré Doué, now injured again, was established in the team and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia arrived in January from Napoli.
If PSG has impressed this season – leading the French league, losing just one of 15 games in all competitions – Bayern is on a remarkable 15-game winning run, buoyed by Harry Kane scoring 22 of the team’s 54 goals.
One year ago, Liverpool was already in imperious form. A 2-0 win at Anfield sent Real Madrid to a third loss in five Champions League games at the start of the Kylian Mbappé era.
Now, it is Madrid with a clear lead in its domestic league with Mbappé scoring for fun, while Liverpool’s win over Aston Villa on Saturday was its first in England for more than a month.
One intriguing sub-plot will be Liverpool fans’ reaction to the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold, their hometown favorite in the past eight seasons.
Expected goals
The Diego Armando Maradona Stadium is a good place to start looking for goals in one of the early games Tuesday.
Napoli returns home after taking a 6-2 beating at PSV Eindhoven two weeks ago. Eintracht Frankfurt has been reliably wild this season with all three Champions League games ending 5-1.
Eintracht dominated Galatasaray by that score before heavy losses at Atletico Madrid and at home to Liverpool.
There should at least be more goals than Eintracht fans in the stadium. Italian city authorities barred the German club from selling tickets to its fans to prevent expected crowd trouble.
Haaland vs. Dortmund
Erling Haaland has been mostly unstoppable while scoring 26 goals for Manchester City and Norway this season, and the challenge now falls to his former club Borussia Dortmund. Good luck with that.
City has won the last 12 times it hosted German teams in the Champions League since 2014, including 2-1 against Dortmund in September 2022 in a game settled by Haaland’s acrobatic flicked volley high off the ground.
Belgium bruised
Belgian clubs looked set to be overachievers this season after big opening day wins for Union Saint-Gilloise (3-1 at PSV) and Club Brugge (4-1 over Monaco).
Each has had back-to-back defeats since then, with Champions League debutant Union losing 4-0 twice in its adopted home stadium belonging to Brussels rival Anderlecht.
It gets no easier this week against Spanish opponents. Union goes to Atletico Madrid on Tuesday and Brugge hosts Barcelona on Wednesday.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer
