Champions League group stages rollercoaster ride enters final turn
Mohamed Salah (L) fights for the ball with Ajax's Mexican defender Edson Alvarez (C) during the UEFA Champions League group A football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Liverpool at the Johan Cruijff Arena. Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Oct. 26, 2022. (AFP Photo)

Group D, which includes Spurs, is particularly poised for a down-to-the-wire finish as four Champions League last-16 places are still up for grabs before the final round of group games



Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp would welcome the chance to rest his key players following a rigorous run of matches that has stretched his injury-plagued team.

Klopp won’t be doing it against Napoli, however. Not with top spot in the group still up for grabs – and not with Napoli "maybe the in-form team in Europe at the moment," according to Klopp.

"This is not a game for massive rotation," said Klopp, whose team has lost back-to-back games in the English Premier League but has won four in a row in the Champions League to qualify for the last 16.

Napoli, which has a club-record 13 straight wins across all competitions, is looking to complete a perfect group stage of six straight victories and will clinch the top spot in the group if it avoids defeat at Liverpool by four goals or more.

Rangers are looking to claim its first point in the group when Ajax visits in the other game. Ajax will finish third and therefore drop into the Europa League knockout-round playoffs, by avoiding defeat by five goals or more.

Already out of contention for the knockout stage, Atletico Madrid tries to at least salvage a third-place finish and a spot in the Europa League playoffs.

Atletico visits Porto sitting one point in front of Bayer Leverkusen, which hosts Club Brugge.

Porto and Brugge are still fighting for first place, with Brugge one point ahead.

Atletico won the Europa League the last two times it was eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League – in 2009-10 and 2017-18. Atletico is not expected to have striker Alvaro Morata available after he picked up an injury on Saturday in the team’s 3-2 loss at Cadiz in the Spanish league.

The four finishing positions are already set but second-placed Inter Milan will be keen to avenge its opening round defeat to group winner Bayern Munich, which will be looking to complete back-to-back perfect group stage campaigns.

Inter lost at home to Bayern 2-0 before winning three of its next four matches without conceding a goal, drawing the other at Barcelona 3-3. Inter will again be without Romelu Lukaku, however, who has suffered a relapse in his latest injury.

The forward made a scoring return late against Viktoria Plzen last week but has sustained another hamstring injury.

Out of the knockout stage and with a Europa League playoff spot secured, Barcelona finishes its Champions League campaign looking to go out on a positive note in its visit to winless Plzen.

Barcelona defeated Plzen in its opener but was winless in its next four games in the group stage.

In a rare occurrence for a group, all four Group D teams enter the final round of games with a chance to advance.

First-placed Tottenham was denied a stoppage-time goal by video assistant referee (VAR) last week that would have secured a win over Sporting and a place in the knockout stage.

Now, the English team is vulnerable heading to Marseille, which is in last place – two points behind Tottenham – but will go through with a victory at Stade Velodrome.

Sporting hosts Eintracht Frankfurt and will advance by avoiding defeat.

Frankfurt is level on points with Sporting but behind courtesy of its home loss to the Portuguese team in their first meeting. Frankfurt will advance with a win and can still top the group.