The Champions League review: Final Match day

14 December, 2023

The Champions League Final Matchday will be over by today and there are teams still fighting for a place to stay back in the competition with some good matches coming ahead of us. Some of the tournament-winning favorites have been doing well just like before whereas some haven’t done as they were hoped with teams like PSG and Milan still fighting to qualify for the advanced rounds.

Atletico vs Lazio  

Time: 1:30 am

Both the Spanish giants and Italian powerhouse are set to qualify for the Champions League round of 16 with both of them being top of the group as Atletico are one first with 11 points while the latter is at second with 10 points. A win or a loss might not affect their qualification hopes but might change their positions on the table. In the last three encounters, Atletico has won two and drawn just one against the Italian outfit.

Atletico injury list: Barrios, Lemar

Lazio's injury list: Marusic, Patric, Romanogli, Isaksen, Rovella  

Celtic vs Feyenoord  

Time: 1:30 am

Celtic and Feyenoord are competing for a third-place finish as both the Holland and Scottish champions will be hoping to not crash out of the European title race. They have faced each other just once in this competition with Feyenoord winning the match 2-0, it was more of a dominant display from the Netherlands outfit in the last meeting of the Champions League where Calvin Stengs and Alireza Jahanabaksh were on the scoresheet.  

Celtic injury list: Maeda, Hatate, Abada, McCarthy

Feyenoord injury list: Nieuwkoop, Jahanabaksh

Dortmund vs PSG

Time: 1:30 am  

German superweights are on top of the group with a qualified status right beside their name as they welcome PSG at the Signal Iduna Park in Germany. The group of death in this season of Champions League 2023-2024 has been one of the most exciting ones with all the bigger teams fumbling against one another. It has been pleasant for PSG against the German giants as they have lost only one out of their 5 matches against them and with Kylian Mbappe in red-hot form, they’d hope he drives the team to glory.

Dortmund injury list: Wolf, Sabitzer, Nmecha, Duranville, Can, Ryerson, Moukoko

PSG injury list: Dembele, Ruiz, Nawas, Rico

Newcastle vs AC Milan

Time: 1:30 am

Newcastle have not had the best of forms lately in the Premier League in the past some matches that they played, they’d be hoping to recover from that and show some form versus the Italian giants AC Milan to qualify for the first time after a very long in the round of 16 of the tournament. AC Milan will be hoping to finish third for the minimum to stay in the European competitions this term.

Newcastle injury list: Pope, Willock, Burn, Murphy, Targett, Anderson, Barnes, Botman

AC Milan injury list: Kalulu, Kjaer, Sportiello, Pellegrino, Thiaw

Antwerp vs Barcelona  

Time: 1:30 am

Antwerp is out of the Champions League tournament with 0 points in the group stage. The surprising Belgian champions have not had the best first experience of the Champions League and they’d be hoping to learn from that considering they weren’t even able to draw a single match. Barcelona on the other hand are a clear favourites to qualify for the round of 16 with their last match against the Belgium outfit being a less hectic one for them.

Antwerp injury list: Muja, Valencia, Engles, Ondrejka, Ekkelenkamp

Barcelona injury list: De Jong, Martinez, Alonso, Gavi, Ter Stegen  

Porto vs Shakhtar  

Time: 1:30 am

Porto and Shakhtar look to fight off each other's competition as they stand with the same number of points in their group with the only difference maker being the goal difference. Anyone who wins the game will qualify for the round of 16 of the Champions League while the latter dropping into the Europa League. If in case theirs a stalemate to be offered, Porto will go ahead considering they are five goals ahead of Shakhtar in goal difference.

Porto injury list: Mario, Portugal, Wendell, Marcano, Veron

Shakhtar injury list: None

Cover Credits: Mob.org