(AFP) - Milan, Italy, and Leipzig, Germany, need a tie to book the last two qualifying cards for the final price of the European Champions League in football, when the first hosts Austrian Salzburg, and the second will be a guest on Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday in the last sixth round of the group stage.
Milan occupies second place in Group E, in which Chelsea booked its first card, with seven points, one point ahead of Salzburg, and the same applies to Leipzig, second in Group Six, which secured Real Madrid, the defending champions, with its first card, by three points in front of Shakhtar Danitsk.
12 teams have qualified so far, namely Napoli, Italy, Liverpool, England (Group A), Club Bruges, Porto, Portugal (second), Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Italy (third), Chelsea (fifth), Real Madrid (sixth), Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund (seventh), and Paris. French Saint-Germain and Portuguese Benfica (eighth).
The two Group D cards will be decided on Tuesday evening, after the French Marseille matches (6 points) with English Tottenham (8), and Portuguese Sporting (7) with Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt (7), provided that the finalists’ contract will be completed on Wednesday after the results of the two matches Milan with Salzburg, and Shakhtar Donetsk with Leipzig.
Milan is counting on the second-best winners in the history of the competition (7 titles), on the ground workers and the public to achieve its goal of reaching the final price for the first time since the 2013-2014 season.
The Italian champion revived his hopes of skipping the group stage in the fifth round, when he defeated his host, Dinamo Zagreb, by four goals, and became one point away from catching up with the qualifiers.
But Milan suffered a painful blow in the domestic league by losing to Turin 1-2 on Sunday, its second domestically this season, costing it a drop to third place, six points behind Napoli soaring in the lead.
The Lombard club, which on Monday extended the contract of its coach Stefano Pioli until 2025, hopes to reconcile its fans in the best possible way by reaching the final price of the prestigious continental competition, but its task will not be easy, especially since the Austrian team, in turn, wants to continue its continental career, at least in the European League. Europa League.
Salzburg is two points ahead of last-placed Dynamo Zagreb, who has a difficult task ahead of Chelsea, who is seeking to reconcile its fans after losing 4-1 to Brighton on Saturday in the league.
In turn, Leipzig needs only one point to reach the final price round for the third time in its short history (established in 2009) after the first season 2019-2020 when it reached the semi-finals and 2020-2021 when it exited the final price.
Leipzig is well aware that its loss to the Ukrainian team in the Polish capital, Warsaw, will oust it to the European League competition for the second time in a row, as Shakhtar Donetsk, with six points, beat it in the first leg in Leipzig 4-1.
Leipzig, who inflicted the first loss this season on the king of the competition, Real Madrid, when he beat him 3-1 in the sixth round, seeks to continue his uprising in the competition and achieve his fourth successive victory after losing in the first and second rounds, hoping that the royal club will falter to end the group stage in the lead.
Leipzig is one point behind Real Madrid, which has the record number of titles in the competition (14), and it aspires to restore the winning streak that it missed in the last two matches by losing to the German team and falling into a 1-1 draw against Girona in La Liga.
Real Madrid seems to be an extraordinary candidate to overcome the obstacle of its only Scottish guest, Celtic, along with its compatriot Rangers (Group A), Victoria Plzen of Czech Republic (third) and Danish Copenhagen (seventh), who have not yet tasted victory.
Real Madrid swept Celtic 3-0 in the first round of the competition, and tomorrow's confrontation will be marginal because the Scottish team lost even hopes of competing for the third place that qualifies for the play-off round that qualifies for the Europa League competition.
The struggle for the top spot in Group H rages between Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica when they play outside their bases against Juventus, Italy, and Maccabi Haifa, Israel.
The two teams deservedly booked the group cards by sharing the lead with 11 points from three wins and two draws in their confrontations, with one result 1-1.
Saint-Germain has a superior goal difference over Benfica (+8 vs. +4), and the results of their two matches in the final round will be decisive to determine the group champion.
On the other hand, Juventus seeks to save face and avoid disaster when it hosts the Parisian club after its disappointing exit from the group stage.
The “Old Lady” team faces the danger of going out empty-handed in Continent, as it occupies third place in the group with three points, on goal difference in front of Maccabi Haifa (-3 vs. -9).
In Group G, Manchester City will meet Sevilla of Spain, and Copenhagen of Denmark with Borussia Dortmund in two marginal matches, after the English team secured the lead against the runners-up of the German League, and the Andalusian team ranked third.