Champions League Jeopardy: PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona And Manchester City Face Playoffs Danger

Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City are among the giants of European soccer preparing for a nervy final round of matches in the opening phase of the Champions League on Wednesday.

All face the prospect of being consigned to the playoffs on a bumper night of 18 matches in Europe's elite club competition.

Only eight teams will advance directly to the round of 16. The next 16 teams face a two-legged playoff to complete the lineup in the knockout phase.

After seven rounds, first-place Arsenal and Bayern Munich in second are the only teams certain of progress.

That sets up a potentially thrilling night of action with just three points separating third-place Madrid and Juventus in 15th.

Eight teams, from PSG in sixth to Atalanta in 13th, are bunched up on 13 points. That raises the prospect of some volatile movement depending on results.

PSG is at home to Newcastle. The French giant is ahead of the English club on goals scored and a loss or a draw could see the defending champion drop out of the top eight.

Hoping to climb into the automatic qualification places are Barcelona and City, both on 13 points.

Barcelona is at home to Copenhagen and 2023 Champions League winner City hosts Galatasaray.

“I prefer to have more (points) but it is what we deserve,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. "We need to focus and try to win our game then see what position we finish.

“We’ll see the result in the last 10 minutes and then we will see (what we have to do). We have to focus on our game, that’s the key.”

PSG and City ended up in the playoffs last season with wildly different outcomes. City missed out on the round of 16 after being eliminated by Madrid , while PSG went on to win the competition for the first time.

Chelsea is eighth but there is much more jeopardy on its opponent Napoli.

The Serie A champion is 25th in the standings, one place below the playoffs, and faces the humbling prospect of elimination. With Napoli's ex-Premier League title-winning Chelsea coach Antonio Conte coming up against his former team, this represents one of the most mouth-watering clashes of the night.

“I know (Chelsea) very well. I know their ambitions. They are Club World champions. We have to give it our all,” Conte said. “We cannot underestimate them. We know what it means to play on our home turf. It would be great to see a wave of blue supporting us.”

Two-time Champions League winner Jose Mourinho could be another high-profile coach exiting the competition at the first stage, with Benfica needing to beat his former club Madrid and relying on other results to make the playoffs.

Madrid is third on 15 points and still not certain to finish in the top eight.

Five Premier League teams make up the top eight, with Arsenal leading and Liverpool fourth on 15 points.

Liverpool would expect to qualify directly, given it hosts Azerbaijan's Qarabag on Wednesday. Qarabag, however, has been one of the surprise packages this season and is in the playoff positions.

Tottenham is fifth on 14 points and its performances in Europe have provided a rare source of encouragement for coach Thomas Frank, who is under increasing scrutiny over his team's domestic form.

Spurs travel to already-eliminated Eintracht Frankfurt.

Arsenal should become the first team to complete a perfect opening league phase when it hosts last place Kairat. This is the second season of the new format that replaced the previous group stages.

In the previous format, 13 teams advanced with perfect records but only had to play six games before the knockout phase.

Arsenal will have won eight games if, as expected, it overcomes Kairat.

While a number of top teams face the potential of the playoffs, the automatic qualification spots could still be dominated by Europe's elite if Barcelona and City can force their way in.

The previous format was considered to have grown stale, with not enough jeopardy riding on games.

Arguably Napoli would represent the only major shock if it failed to make the playoffs, which could lead to accusations that the new format still produces predictable outcomes.

However, the fact there are so many uncertainties going into the final round suggests the format is creating ample jeopardy right to the end.

The playoffs draw is at 12:00 CET on Friday.