Manchester City and Leipzig were the first to qualify for the Champions League play-offs.

The first tickets to the Champions League play-offs were given to two Group G clubs – Manchester City and Leipzig, who booked them after the fourth round of the group stage. In other quartets, where matches within its framework were played on Tuesday, the intrigue is still alive and, as a rule, acute.

Group E

This group played two very different matches in the fourth round. In one, Atlético, having smashed at home – 6:0 – the outsider Celtic, who had managed to draw with the Spanish club in the previous one, won the biggest European Cup victory since their debut appearance in them: in 1958, they beat the Irish Drumcondra – 8:0. “Lazio” somehow defeated “Feyenord” on their field. The only goal – his 200th for the Italian team – was scored by Ciro Immobile at the end of the first half. And these two results ensured a great finish to the tournament in the quartet.

Three clubs continue to fight for two spots in the play-offs of the Champions League. And between Atlético Madrid, which is at the top, and Feyenoord, which is in third place, there are only two points. In the middle is Lazio, whose position actually looks the strongest. In the next round they will host Celtic, and a win will bring the Romans closer to a ticket to the cup stage: after all, one of the competitors meeting each other in the Netherlands (or even both competitors at once) will lose points. And maybe there won’t even be a need to accomplish the feat in the final round in Madrid. Although the option with the feat does not lose its relevance yet.

Group F

However, in Group F, which lives up to its reputation as a “group of death,” the situation is even more curious after Tuesday’s matches. In them, Milan took revenge on PSG for a painful 0:3 defeat in the third round, coping with the Parisians, despite an early missed goal and a bunch of critical moments from their opponents, 2:1, and Borussia for the second time in a row defeated, now at home with a score of 2:0, Newcastle, who just seemed to be feeling quite comfortable.

No one can dream of complete comfort in a quartet. His classification is a simple mathematical sequence, apparently terribly sweet to the eyes of someone who does not want the well-being of an individual team, but the final cut: Borussia has seven points, PSG has six, Milan has five, Newcastle has – four. That is, even an English club that has settled in the basement can still break through to not only second, but even first position. The specificity of the tournament position, of course, completely defeats the purpose of trying to determine who has a more favorable calendar. Each of the applicants has a ticket to a match away and at home with direct competitors.

Group G

Surprisingly, both group favorites managed to guarantee themselves participation in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League already at the start of the second round of the group round. Manchester City – after an easy, 3:0, home victory in the fourth round over Young Boys, Leipzig – after a hard, 2:1, away victory over Red Star.

All that remains to be seen is who will finish in first position and who will get a ticket to the Europa League play-offs. In both battles, the matches of the next round will be decisive. In them, Manchester City will play at home with Leipzig, which is three points behind the winner of the last Champions League, and Young Boys will play with Red Star. The Swiss and Serbian clubs have equal points – one each.

And for Erling Haaland, a calm end to the round is an opportunity to reign at the head of the tournament’s scoring race. Despite the double in the meeting with Leipzig, the Norwegian with four goals is still a goal behind the “hot” Alvaro Morata from Atlético.

Group H

The goal scored by Shakhtar player Danilo Sican in the home match against Barcelona gave birth to one of the main sensations of the tournament. Thanks to him, the Ukrainian club beat the Catalans on their field – 1:0, depriving them of the opportunity to celebrate their early entry into the play-offs, like Manchester City and Leipzig. In this quartet, after the fourth round, Barcelona, ​​with nine points, is on par with the hopeless Antwerp, which beat Porto 2:0. Shakhtar are three points behind the Spanish-Portuguese duo and are still in business.

Presumably, he will remain in business until the last round. The fact is that in the fifth, Shakhtar hosts Antwerp and, in theory, is obliged to get the better of them. Barcelona and Porto have a head-to-head meeting in Spain with inevitable losses in favor of the Ukrainian team. And in the sixth round, she is scheduled to visit the Portuguese club.

Alexey Dospehov