PSG was unbeaten entering 2023 then lost three in the league and is out of the French Cup. Bayern still leads the Bundesliga after restarting with three straight draws. TEAMS IN SLUMPSA Champions League adage is the team you draw after the group stage is not always the one you meet in February. When the last-16 draw was made on Nov. 7, Real Madrid was the unbeaten Spanish league leader paired with an already inconsistent Liverpool. Madrid has now lost three of eight and let Barcelona take a dominating lead.
That should be worth about 100 million euros ($107 million) in UEFA prize money. That cash now looks almost essential to Chelsea after a season of lavish transfer spending signed off by American owner Todd Boehly. Chelsea plays a Dortmund team third in the Bundesliga, just three points behind Bayern, without yet seeming a convincing title challenger.
Off the field, the Super League project that tried to effectively kill the Champions League met a serious legal setback, and English title holder Manchester City faces Premier League charges of financial wrongdoing that could one day stop the club entering future Champions Leagues. It adds up to plenty of drama even before soccer’s most prized club competition resumes with a stellar game between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. A rematch of the 2020 final won by Bayern pairs two powers that helped stop the Super League in 2021 by refusing to join it. What it was not expected to have at Parc des Princes were the goalscorer and goalkeeper with the best records from the group stage.
At least second-place Madrid is so far clear of fifth in La Liga to be almost sure of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. Not so, Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. Nor AC Milan, Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt and Club Brugge. None is currently on track to qualify for next season’s competition. For Liverpool and Chelsea, European champions in 2019 and 2021, actually winning another final on June 10 in Istanbul might be their best chance of being in the group-stage draw in August.
Chelsea is another and visits Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, when Club Brugge hosts Benfica. Four more first-leg games are scheduled Feb. 21-22. MESSI QUESTAt age 35, Messi finally has a World Cup title for Argentina. Now back to the business of winning a fifth Champions League. When Messi won his fourth title with Barcelona in 2015 Barack Obama was president, Britain was in the European Union and Jose Mourinho won a league title, at Chelsea. Messi has not been to the final since and his first try with PSG ended in the round of 16 against Madrid. When he last faced Bayern it was an 8-2 rout over Barcelona in the single-leg quarterfinals of the pandemic-hit 2020 edition. Both PSG and Bayern have misfired since the World Cup.
HALLER’S RETURNDortmund already has a great comeback story: Sébastien Haller’s return from a cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment. Haller should make his European debut for Dortmund eight months since he was the club’s marquee summer signing to replace Erling Haaland. Haaland had five goals for Manchester City in the group, including in a 2-1 home win over Dortmund.