\n<\/p>\n
The battle for the top eight is where things get interesting.<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the easy bit. For Real Madrid and Liverpool, both on 15 points, and Tottenham, on 14, a victory on matchday eight will secure direct entry into the last 16.<\/p>\n
Spurs face eliminated Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany, where the north London outfit won last year on the way to a Europa League triumph that secured them Champions League football this season.<\/p>\n
Arne Slot’s Liverpool side are at home to Qarabag, who can still make the top eight.<\/p>\n
“It’s all down to us again next week, at home. Let’s make sure we’re in the top eight,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Uefa.<\/p>\n
“It’s very important as you miss the play-offs, and it helps with the intense programme that we’re having. We’ve put ourselves in a good position.”<\/p>\n
Real are away to former manager Jose Mourinho’s Benfica.<\/p>\n
Mourinho reached three Champions League semi-finals in a row with Real before leaving in 2013, but Benfica – with only two wins in their first seven games – will need to beat Real to have a chance of sneaking into the play-offs.<\/p>\n
Behind Spurs come a group of eight teams, starting with holders Paris St-Germain in sixth down to Atalanta in 13th, on 13 points.<\/p>\n
Newcastle, Chelsea and City are all in that group needing a win – and even then knowing their fate could come down to goal difference.<\/p>\n
Chelsea are also up against a former manager in Antonio Conte, who won Serie A with Napoli last season but will welcome the Blues to Naples with his side sitting outside the play-off spots on goal difference.<\/p>\n
City host Galatasaray, while Eddie Howe’s Newcastle side face the daunting task of travelling to PSG.<\/p>\n
Everyone down to Qarabag in 18th still has a mathematical chance of automatically advancing.<\/p>\n
That is in part because, remarkably, despite 16 teams still being in contention for the six remaining top-eight spots, only two of the 18 matches next Wednesday have those sides facing each other.<\/p>\n
Newcastle’s trip to Paris is one and Borussia Dortmund at home to Inter Milan is the other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The battle for the top eight is where things get interesting. Let’s start with the easy bit. For Real Madrid and Liverpool, both on 15 points, and Tottenham, on 14, a victory on matchday eight will secure direct entry into the last 16. Spurs face eliminated Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany, where the north London outfit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}