The top half of the Champions League will be back in competition once again on Tuesday for games that could ultimately decide once and for all who will be moving forward to the knockout rounds of the competition, who will be dropping into the Europa League and who will be finished in European play in 2016-17.
These Champions League duels will go down Tuesday, November 1, 2016, with most of the kickoffs taking place at 2:45 p.m. ET. The Atletico Madrid/Rostov match will be televised live on ESPN2, while the Ludogorets/Arsenal affair can be seen on FOX Sports 2.
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FC Basel ( +485 ) vs. Paris Saint Germain
Atletico Madrid ( -805 ) vs. Rostov
Besiktas ( +270 ) vs. Napoli
PSV Eindhoven ( +650 ) vs. Bayern Munich
Ludogorets ( +800 ) vs. Arsenal
Borussia Monchengladbach ( -205 ) vs. Celtic
Manchester City ( +186 ) vs. Barcelona
Benfica ( -180 ) vs. Dynamo Kiev
Group A has basically become a dead group at this point, and the only question is which team of Arsenal and PSG will finish first versus second and which one of FC Basel or Ludogorets will get the right to play in the Europa League.
This will all work itself out at a later date when these four play against their competitors towards the end of the proceedings in the knockout round. But for the time being, the overmatched foes are playing against the dominant sides, and anything less than three points for both Arsenal against Ludogorets and PSG for FC Basel would be a huge disappointment.
Group B is where all of the action is over the course of the last few games of the group stage. All four of Napoli, Besiktas, Benfica and Dynamo Kiev still have a legitimate shot of qualifying, though Tuesday probably represents the end of the chances for the Ukrainian side. A loss on the road at Benfica would leave it either four or five points back of qualifying with just two matches to play, and that would probably be the end of that.
As far as Napoli and Besiktas are concerned, they're playing for first place in the group. When these two teams met a couple weeks ago on Italian soil, the Turkish side pulled off a huge 3-2 upset. Now, the teams meet again in Turkey, and if Besiktas can take the three points from this one, they'll be in great shape to qualify for the knockout rounds.
The best match of the day is the Manchester City vs. Barcelona fixture at the Etihad. Barca has outscored teams 13-1 here in the UCL to date, and that includes whipping up on the Citizens a couple weeks ago on Spanish soil.
Even though Man City probably has nothing to worry about in terms of qualifying, but there's a really good chance it isn't going to be in a qualifying position with two matches left to play if this one goes south.
Celtic goes on the road to face Borussia Monchengladbach as well on Tuesday, and if there's a winner of this game, that team will at least draw level with Manchester City should the Citizens end up losing to the Spanish giants.
Group D is technically still up for discussion at this point, but Atletico Madrid is already through, and Bayern Munich can join it as well if it can beat PSV Eindhoven on the road. This really is the last shot for the Dutch side, though realistically, in this group, the best that it could ever really think about is finishing third and getting into the Europa League. That match against Rostov that will decide that will come later on in the group stage.
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