The first Champions League team will reach 10 points this week and likely ensure advancing to the knockout stage as the untested 36-team standings format reaches the midway point.
Either Liverpool or Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen will have 10 points after they meet at Anfield on Tuesday, when Manchester City also can do it by winning at Sporting Lisbon that is still being coached by Rúben Amorim until he joins Manchester United one week later.
English teams hold the top three places in the table, with recent European champions Man City and Liverpool looking up at surprise leader Aston Villa.
Villa, the 1982 European Cup winner, goes for a fourth straight win Wednesday at Club Brugge.
Much further down the standings, the two teams with the most titles in the competition’s 70-season history — both when coached by Carlo Ancelotti — meet in Spain.
Record 15-time champion Real Madrid hosting AC Milan, with seven titles, is a clash on Tuesday of the 12th and 25th-placed teams after three of the eight rounds.
The new format sends only the top eight teams directly to the round of 16 in January. Teams that finish Nos. 9-16 are seeded in the knockout playoffs round in February against teams ranked 17th to 24th. Winners of those two-leg encounters advance to the round of 16 in March.
UEFA’s pre-season simulations suggested as few as eight points from eight games would be enough to enter the knockout phase.
Still, upset losses so far for Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern showed how predictions can be upended.
Unbalanced schedules
All 36 teams got a balanced slate of opponents by drawing two teams from each of four seeding pots based on UEFA competition results over the past five years.
The order of fixtures, however, can be lopsided and Leipzig languishes with zero points after losses against three high-ranked opponents. Leipzig now plays at Celtic, from the lower-ranked No. 3 seeds.
Sporting also is a pot 3 team, giving Man City a third lower-ranked opponent in the first half of its program.
Liverpool has excelled despite a front-loaded fixture list. Leverkusen is its third high-ranked opponent and next comes Real Madrid at Anfield on Nov. 27.
Atletico Madrid has underachieved in 27th place, and goes to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, but the three-time beaten finalist has one of the softest schedules to come.
Sliding doors
Xabi Alonso could have been in the home team dugout Tuesday. Liverpool offered its former star midfielder, a Champions League winner in the epic 2005 final, the chance to succeed Jürgen Klopp this season.
Alonso opted to stay at Leverkusen and take the unbeaten Bundesliga champion into the Champions League. Liverpool turned to Feyenoord’s Arne Slot who is having a historically good start with the Premier League leader.
Rúben Amorim is working against Manchester City on Tuesday just weeks after he was linked with being the club’s next coach.
Pep Guardiola’s future plans are unclear with his contract expiring next year, and Man City already announced its director of football next season will be Amorim’s current front office boss at Sporting, Hugo Viana.
Dominating English
Played 12, won 10, drawn two, lost none.
The four English teams have not even conceded a goal since the third minute of the opening round, when AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic scored in Liverpool’s 3-1 win at San Siro.
The English Premier League is turning financial power to its advantage and this rate of results will earn a bonus fifth entry in next year’s competition.
Man City and Arsenal return to Europe after weekend losses. Guardiola’s team aims to avoid a rare third straight defeat facing Sporting's in-form Viktor Gyökeres. The Sweden forward played five seasons on loan with lower-tier teams in Germany and England before joining Sporting last year.
Arsenal returns to Italy to face Inter Milan after starting with a 0-0 draw against Atalanta in nearby Bergamo.
Surprising French
Few saw this coming from the four-team French challenge. Monaco and Brest unbeaten in fourth and fifth place, respectively, Lille in the top half of the standings and PSG trailing.
Brest again faces one of its lowest-ranked opponents when it plays at Sparta Prague on Wednesday, with games against Real Madrid and Barcelona to come in the second half.
Monaco already beat Barcelona and now goes to Bologna, which is among four teams that have failed to score so far.
Lille hosts Juventus on Tuesday at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, where Real Madrid was stunned 1-0 a month ago.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
