• Yunus Musah just got sent off for a second yellow.
• Milan, down a goal and a man, is down in 12th place of the live standings after entering the day in the top eight.
• Aston Villa has thrown away its lead to Celtic. That game is now 2-2.
• Real Madrid is up 1-0.
• Lille is back up 2-1, and Bayer Leverkusen is up 1-0. Both are in the top eight as things stand, with Villa dropping out.
• Ousmane Dembélé makes it 3-0 in favor of PSG at Stuttgart.
• After early struggles in the league phase, the French champions will comfortably reach the knockouts — in 15th place, as it stands!
• It’s still 0-0 after 33 minutes in Manchester. City still doesn’t have a shot on goal.
• Reminder: None of these other results change Man City’s task. They have to win. They haven’t given fans much confidence they’ll do that. It’s eerily quiet at the Etihad.

PSG delivers the first blow as they score off a beautifully executed set-piece! 🤯

Bradley Barcola scores in back-to-back UCL matches 💥 pic.twitter.com/kNANV05sII

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) January 29, 2025

• Vangelis Pavlidis puts Benfica up 1-0 at Juventus.
• Almost simultaneously, Ousmane Dembélé scores for PSG to double their lead at Stuttgart.
• And then Dinamo Zagreb, the Croatian club that’s largely been written off, goes ahead against AC Milan!
• That leaves the bubble looking like this…

Lautaro Martínez etches his name in Inter history, notching his 15th UCL goal to pass Adriano for the most in club history 🌟 pic.twitter.com/KooJGc3GYY

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) January 29, 2025

• The top 8, as it stands after 15 minutes…
• Feyenoord’s equalizer at Lille bumped Lille back down in the playoff places.
• City looked open and vulnerable to Brugge counterattacks early.
• At the other end, they haven’t created much of note in the first 12 minutes.
• They’ll have plenty of possession, and they’ll probably camp out in the final third. The question, as ever, is whether they can translate that to chances, and eventually ram in a goal. A draw wouldn’t be sufficient.

Morgan Rogers 🤯The first player in UEFA Champions League history to score twice in the opening five minutes of a game in the competition 🤩

Cold 🥶 pic.twitter.com/34lRGdeDXL

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) January 29, 2025

• Bradley Barcola puts the Parisians up 1-0 from a corner.
• That, of course, leaves PSG in excellent shape. They only need a draw.
• Morgan Rogers scores for Aston Villa against Celtic. And then he scores again, to put the hosts up 2-0 inside five minutes. (Rogers has been a revelation at Villa Park this season.)
• That result, for now, would push Villa up into the top eight.
• Inter Milan, Atlético Madrid, Lille and Bayern Munich are also up 1-0
• All 36 teams, all 18 games, all at once.
• This could be riveting. It could be totally overwhelming, and/or anticlimactic.
• Let’s find out!
• One additional detail to consider: PSG and Stuttgart, who meet head-to-head in Germany tonight, and who are level on 10 points, would both guarantee progression to the playoff round with a draw.
• So… might they be conservative, or even collude and settle for a 0-0?
• The latter scenario is unlikely, because of the opti. But, if they’re tied in the second half, don’t be surprised if they both rein things in and accept a draw.