The second half of the UEFA Champions League league stage begins this week, with pressure on several top teams to pick up much-needed points with the race to advance to the next round in full swing.
The main event of matchday five will take place in England on Wednesday, when Liverpool host Real Madrid in a battle between the league stage leaders and the reigning European champions. Points will also be at a premium on Tuesday in Germany, where Bayern Munich hosts a struggling Paris Saint-Germain. Sporting Lisbon will also host Arsenal in one of the most notable matchups of the week during a momentous week in Europe.
Here’s what you need to know before you tune in.
how to watch
Paramount+ will once again have every minute of Champions League action, with CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network offering additional coverage in addition to streaming select matches. Paramount+ will also stream The Golazo Show both days this week. CBS Sports Golazo Network will kick off coverage each day before the UEFA Champions League Today pre-match show airs on Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo Network will also air the show on Tuesday and CBS Sports Network will air the show on Wednesday. Once the games have concluded, the UEFA Champions League Today post-match show will air on Paramount+, as well as CBS Sports Golazo Network on Tuesday and CBS Sports Network on Wednesday, before CBS Sports Golazo Network presents coverage of each day with new editions of Scoreline and El Club de Campeones.
Champions League standings
Key: Positions 1 to 8 qualify for the round of 16, while positions 9 to 24 qualify for the Play-Offs of the knockout phase and positions 25 to 36 are eliminated.
| Pos. | Equipment | family doctor | W. | d | l | bride | Georgia | God | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | +9 | 12 |
| 2 | sports CP | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 10 |
| 3 | Monaco | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 10 |
| 4 | Brest | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 3 | +6 | 10 |
| 5 | Bury | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 10 |
| 6 | Barcelona | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 5 | +10 | 9 |
| 7 | Borussia Dortmund | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 9 |
| 8 | Villa Aston | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 |
| 9 | Atalanta | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 8 |
| 10 | city of manchester | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 7 |
| 11 | Juventus | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 7 |
| 12 | Arsenal | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 7 |
| 13 | Bayer Leverkusen | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 7 |
| 14 | Lille | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 7 |
| 15 | Celtic | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 7 |
| 16 | Dinamo Zagreb | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 12 | -2 | 7 |
| 17 | Bayern Munich | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 6 |
| 18 | real Madrid | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 6 |
| 19 | Benfica | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 6 |
| 20 | AC Milan | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 6 |
| 21 | Feyenoord | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | -3 | 6 |
| 22 | Club Bruges | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 6 |
| 23 | Atlético de Madrid | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 6 |
| 24 | PSV | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 5 |
| 25 | PSG | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -2 | 4 |
| 26 | Sparta Prague | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 4 |
| 27 | Stuttgart | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 4 |
| 28 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 4 |
| 29 | Girona | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 3 |
| 30 | RB Salzburg | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 3 |
| 31 | Bologna | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 1 |
| 32 | RB Leipzig | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 0 |
| 33 | SK Sturm Graz | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 0 |
| 34 | young boys | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 11 | -10 | 0 |
| 35 | Red Star of Belgrade | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 16 | -12 | 0 |
| 36 | Bratislava Slovakia | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 15 | -13 | 0 |
Television schedule for matchday 5
All Eastern Time
Arguments of day 5
1. Will Liverpool be able to keep up with Real Madrid?
Liverpool’s near-perfect start under new manager Arne Slot is still unabated, with the Reds boasting an eight-point lead in the Premier League table and a two-point lead in the Champions League. Slot’s unstoppable team, however, will face its biggest test yet on Wednesday when it hosts reigning European champions Real Madrid.
Slot has turned Liverpool into a defensive-minded team, conceding just eight goals in the domestic league and just one in the Champions League. It could be a strong tactic for several reasons, one of which is the fact that this season could be a The last dance of the Liverpool version of Jurgen Klopp. Mohamed Salah continues to contribute at an impressive rate with 11 goals and 10 assists so far this season, but his form is starting to decline as he gets older, perhaps forcing him to admit that he is “probably more out than inside” with less than a year to finish his current contract at Anfield.
As much as Liverpool’s offensive production may be slowing, there is another reason why the defensive strategy could pay off for Slot on Wednesday. They will face a Real Madrid team that has many scorers, but with a somewhat irregular record in front of goal. With two wins and two losses to start their Champions League campaign, they have missed goals at times and failed to live up to the promise of a star-studded attack. This was particularly true in the losses to AC Milan and Lille: in the first, they took 23 shots but managed only one goal, while in the second they took only 12 shots in total and failed to score any goals.
Making matters worse for Real Madrid is the fact that Vini Junior, their most reliable scorer with 12 goals this season, will miss the game with a brief hamstring injury. However, his absence could give Kylian Mbappe the long-awaited chance to shine after some lackluster performances for his new club in recent weeks.
2. Bayern and PSG face each other in a must-win match
Another highly anticipated match this week comes in Germany, where Bayern Munich will host Paris Saint-Germain, as both teams badly need points.
Bayern sit outside the top eight with two wins and two losses so far this season, although they remain within striking distance and a win on Tuesday could certainly improve their case. Vincent Kompany’s side have been all over the place in European competition, sometimes looking completely dominant as they did in their 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb and at other times outplayed, such as in the 4-1 defeat to Barcelona. Kompany and company can use Tuesday’s match as another true measuring stick for their project as they begin to add high-caliber matches against European heavyweights to the schedule.
It could help Bayern argue that PSG is very much a work in progress. The French champions find themselves dangerously outside the top 24 of the league stage standings, earning just four points from four games and scoring just three goals along the way. Their difficult schedule hasn’t helped, but PSG’s tendency to fail to score goals in European play shows real room for improvement, especially as the fixture list doesn’t get any easier. They will play Bayern on Tuesday and still have a game against Manchester City before the end of the league phase, which requires a young PSG to not only deliver, but do so in the important games, if they want to secure passage to the next round. round.
3. Sporting faces Arsenal in the post-Amorim era
The league phase has offered many surprises so far, perhaps the main one being the fact that Sporting Lisbon are in second place halfway through the competition. They will have a great opportunity to show that they are capable of staying there on Tuesday when they host Arsenal.
Lisbon are just weeks away from a 3-1 win over Manchester City on Matchday 4, a match that was arguably both an excellent send-off for outgoing manager Ruben Amorim and a demonstration that Sporting could do just fine without him. They have been one of the highest scoring teams so far in the Champions League this season, led in large part by Viktor Gyokeres’ five goals in Europe so far. However, it will be worth keeping an eye on how the group stacks up against a defensively solid Arsenal side.
The Gunners have not always been at their defensive best this season, but the Champions League offers a reminder of their preferred tactical style. They have only conceded one goal in European games this season, which helps make up for the fact that they have only scored three goals along the way. However, things could change on the scoring front for matchday five, with Martin Odegaard back in the mix after recovering from an ankle injury and scoring an assist against Nottingham Forest over the weekend.
