Table of Contents
The UEFA Champions League is three games into the new competition phase after Tuesday and Wednesday’s action and Aston Villa are the surprise leaders along with Liverpool with three wins from three, for a total of nine points at 100%. Given that an estimated 10 points are enough to absolutely secure a place in the Top 24 and a place in the UCL knockouts, Unai Emery and Arne Slot’s men should logically only need to collect one more point from the five remaining matches, including Juventus, RB Leipzig. and AS Monaco for the Villans. They’re not the only team to catch the eye, but they’re perhaps the most unexpected name of a host of unexpected teams topping Europe so far, along with a few more familiar faces.
We take a closer look.
Surprise artists
Villa is certainly the choice of clubs you wouldn’t necessarily have spent money on to lead the pack after three rounds. However, the Birmingham Premier League side are enjoying a fast start to their continental adventure, which has already included a famous victory over Bayern Munich at Villa Park. Slightly behind Villa in terms of teams are surprisingly unbeaten French Stade Brestois 29 and AS Monaco, both with seven points from a possible nine, which is huge for Ligue 1 given Paris Saint-Germain’s unexpectedly slow start. German champions Bayer Leverkusen, along with Sporting CP, have also made an unbeaten start against Manchester City and Arsenal, less surprisingly despite the Gunners dropping two points to Atalanta BC on the opening day and the Citizens being held by Inter.
Surprise fighters
As mentioned, PSG’s loss to Arsenal put them in a difficult situation and that was made even more difficult by Tuesday’s 1-1 draw against PSV Eindhoven at the Parc des Princes. The French champions hover within the Top 24, but will expect to be closer to the top eight after two of the three opening games against Girona FC and PSV. Perhaps more surprising is that both Red Bull teams – Leizpig and Salzburg – currently occupy the elimination places, while Bayern, Atletico Madrid and Milan are all quite low compared to their initial expectations. Villa and Monaco have gained the upper hand over the Germans and Barcelona respectively as part of the first evidence that UEFA’s shake-up is making things interesting, but this should be a wake-up call for the Bavarians and especially the Italians.
Coefficient storylines so far
A fascinating subplot in these early rounds of Champions League matches was the impact of the competition phase on the coefficient battle. English sides are doing well in first place, which holds one of the two extra UCL places for next season, but the country keeping pace so far is Portugal, with Sporting and Benfica already recording four combined wins for just the two clubs, despite a home loss to Feyenoord for the latter this midweek. An even bigger surprise was the Czech Republic’s rise to fourth in the rankings, while Sparta Prague were still in the Top 24 after the first few rounds of matches, despite a thrashing from City. Just ahead of the Czech Republic, France is in third place, while Monaco, Lille and Brest are currently outperforming PSG in this edition. Spain is slowly rising to seventh place, but is already off the pace thanks to Real, Barca and Atletico all suffering unexpected losses, while last year’s strong performers – Italy and Germany – are both slightly behind for the time being.
Important matches of the 4th round
All 3pm ET
- Tuesday November 5: Liverpool vs. Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid vs. Milan
- Wednesday November 6: Inter vs Arsenal and PSG vs Atletico Madrid
We’re looking ahead to the next round of UCL matches and there are some big ones on the agenda, such as Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso reunion at Anfield and the evergreen classic Real Madrid versus Milan on Tuesday. Wednesday sees a tasty combination between Inter and Arsenal and between PSG and Atletico Madrid, with Real vs Milan and PSG vs Atleti particularly important given the results of those teams so far, not all of which have been as expected.
Standings
Key: Positions 1-8 qualify for Round of 16, while positions 9-24 qualify for the Knockout Stage Play-Offs and positions 25-36 are eliminated.
| PositionPosition | Team | GP | W | D | L | G.F | GO | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aston Villa | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 9 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 |
| 3 | Manchester city | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0 | +9 | 7 |
| 4 | Monaco | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 7 |
| 5 | Brest | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 7 |
| 6 | Bayer Leverkusen | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 7 |
| 7 | Below | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 7 |
| 8 | Sporty CP | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 7 |
| 9 | Arsenal | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 7 |
| 10 | Barcelona | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 |
| 11 | Borussia Dortmund | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 6 |
| 12 | Real Madrid | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | +4 | 6 |
| 13 | Benfica | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 6 |
| 14 | Juventus | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 |
| 15 | Lille | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 6 |
| 16 | Feyenoord | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 6 |
| 17 | Atalanta | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 5 |
| 18 | Stuttgart | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 4 |
| 19 | PSG | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 4 |
| 20 | Celtic | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 4 |
| 21 | Sparta Praha | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 4 |
| 22 | Dinamo Zagreb | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 4 |
| 23 | Bayern Munich | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 3 |
| 24 | Girona | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| 25 | AC Milan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 3 |
| 26 | ClubBruges | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 3 |
| 27 | Atletico Madrid | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | -5 | 3 |
| 28 | PSV | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 2 |
| 29 | Bologna | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 1 |
| 30 | Shaktar Donetsk | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 1 |
| 31 | RB Leipzig | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 0 |
| 32 | SK Sturm Graz | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | -4 | 0 |
| 33 | Red Star Belgrade | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | -9 | 0 |
| 34 | Young boys | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | -9 | 0 |
| 35 | RB Salzburg | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | -9 | 0 |
| 36 | Slovan Bratislava | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 11 | -10 | 0 |