SETTLE down, sit back and turn on your television.
Wednesday night will be madness — just the 18 Champions League games, six involving English clubs.
And only one of them with nothing really riding on it.
Uefa, working with Europe’s most powerful clubs, could not have imagined they would have such a situation in only the second year of the new format.
Of course, when the switch to the eight-match, eight-opponent league stage was being drafted, it was expected Manchester United would be part of the equation.
Instead, while bathing in the deserved afterglow of back-to-back wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, United are returning to the shadows this week.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
Maybe this time next year, Rodney… for now, though, all the attention turns elsewhere.
To Paris, Naples, Frankfurt and Liverpool.
Plus many of Europe’s other big cities. Arsenal, hosting Kazakh makeweights Kairat Almaty — with a solitary point they appear all Kairat and no stick — are virtually guaranteed to finish top of the 36-team pile.
Although, in the final analysis, coming top did not exactly add up to a hill of beans for Liverpool last term — they ended up facing eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain and crashing out in the last 16.
Most read in Champions League
BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS
Getting into the top eight and avoiding a two-legged play-off next month, though, is certainly a major advantage and prize for clubs already struggling under the sheer weight of fixtures.
Going into the final set of matches, all six Prem clubs’ top-eight fate is in their own hands.
Liverpool and Tottenham, fourth and fifth respectively as they face Qarabag and Frankfurt, know that wins will guarantee their places in the last 16 — no matter what else happens.
But with Newcastle, Chelsea and Manchester City among the EIGHT teams on 13 points, just one below Spurs, every goal has the capacity to turn the table upside down.
Indeed, while Thomas Frank’s North Londoners will be at least fifth with a win over the eliminated German side — and could end up third — they might still finish as low as 16th, the slot currently held by the Dortmund side they beat last week.
Realistically, with it being so tight, two or even three of the English sides, possibly four, may not make it through directly.
That is jeopardy, in spades. What football is supposed to be about.
There were plenty of moans when the new system and the “Swiss model” was unveiled by Uefa in Vienna back in 2022.
Too complicated and unwieldy. A competition that did not make sense. All about the money. Just for the big clubs.
And that was from some of the people who thought it might be a good idea compared to the old, stale group-stage format that had been in place for two decades.
Four in each group, playing home and away, became too predictable.
You would often get to the fifth match-day round, let alone the final one, with 14 clubs already through and just two places left — for sides that would inevitably get knocked out when the business end of the competition arrived.
Not this season, at all. Even more so with the various sub-plots.
Antonio Conte and his defending Serie A champions Napoli having to beat Chelsea to stay alive.
The “gulf-state derby” between PSG and Newcastle. Qatar versus Saudi Arabia with national pride on the line.
Even Benfica boss Jose Mourinho in a revenge mission against Real Madrid, the club which many feel broke the Special One’s spirit.
The Champions League is football at its absolute best.
Those two-leg, elite knockout clashes are something special.
But tomorrow night is a nice appetiser for every fan to savour before we get to the main course in a few weeks.
And for real football-holics, you can do it all over again on Thursday for the Europa League.
Stools of the trade
IF Thomas Tuchel is after World Cup inspiration for those moments of doubt, he needs to pick up the phone to Sarina Wiegman. Or maybe not.
Lionesses boss Wiegman recalled her two moments of levity from last summer’s Euros when she was guest of honour at Sunday’s FWA Tribute evening.
The Dutchwoman, 56, recalled how she had sat on a stool in the middle of her squad for a crisis meeting after the opening loss to France — before bringing it back out as a joke in the dressing room before the quarter-final victory over Sweden.
Then, ahead of the semi-final win against Italy, Wiegman produced a washbag bearing the messages “B*****s get s*** done”.
But Wiegman conceded: “Against Sweden, we were 2-0 down in 25 minutes, while we said we just had to make sure Italy didn’t score first — which they did.”
Sometimes it’s just about the mentality and character of the players.
Good news for men’s boss Tuchel, too.
Slot Real problem
WHEN the bookies say you’re more likely than Thomas Frank to be the next manager sacked, then you must be in trouble.
Despite that defeat at Bournemouth, dropping Liverpool back out of the top five with four points from the last 15, Arne Slot will surely have until the end of the season.
Pitchside observers at the Vitality on Saturday suggested something was awry in the relationship between Slot and two of his cornerstones — skipper Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.
It may have been frustration once again. Incredibly, after that run of late goals at the start of the season, Liverpool have dropped stoppage-time points against Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Leeds, Fulham — and now Andoni Iraola’s Cherries.
But it feels deeper and more dangerous for Slot.
Especially with Xabi Alonso waiting by the phone after his Real Madrid sacking.
AFTER three years of dourness, it was good to hear an upbeat Steve Borthwick trying to enlist an England fan invasion of Paris for the Six Nations.
This time last year, Borthwick looked one bad game away from serious trouble. Amazing what 11 wins in a row does for your confidence.
UNAI EMERY probably won’t mention the word “title” until May.
But if it does get tight, few are better able to coax something special out of their players than Aston Villa’s Spanish boss.
And like with Leicester in 2016, plenty of teams might secretly hope Villa pull it off.
