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Champions League live updates: Lineups, scenarios, key questions as group phase ends with chaotic final matchday

The new age of the UEFA Champions League reaches its first climax on Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. All 36 teams will play 18 simultaneous games to conclude the "league phase." CBS Sports, which will broadcast all 18 on Paramount+ in the United States, has been billing it as "Matchday Mayhem."

That's because, over two chaotic, confusing hours, dozens of goals will be scored, and each one will tweak the live Champions League table. Teams will leap and fall, above and below various cut-lines. And by the end, several pressing questions will be answered, namely:

Will Manchester City crash out? The 2023 champions of Europe, and reigning kings of England, must beat Club Brugge to advance to the knockout rounds.
Will PSG survive? A draw at Stuttgart would be sufficient. A loss would put them at the mercy of Man City, Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal. (If City wins, neither Portuguese club loses, and PSG does lose, the Parisians would be out.)
Who will claim the six available byes to the Round of 16? Liverpool and Barcelona have locked up two of eight. A whopping 18 teams are still in contention for the rest.

For those not yet familiar with the new Champions League format, a refresher: The 36 teams are all tussling in a single table. The top eight finishers will advance straight to the Round of 16. The next 16 — those in positions 9-24 — will advance to a playoff round. The bottom 12 will be eliminated.

After seven of eight matches apiece, the tiered table looks like this:

Clinched bye to Round of 16: Liverpool (21), Barcelona (18)

Clinched knockout rounds, in contention for bye: Arsenal (16), Inter Milan (16), Atlético Madrid (15), AC Milan (15), Atalanta (14), Bayer Leverkusen (13), Aston Villa (13), Monaco (13), Lille (13), Brest (13), Feyenoord (13), Borussia Dortmund (12), Bayern Munich (12), Real Madrid (12), Juventus (12), Celtic (12)

In contention for knockout rounds: PSV (11), Club Brugge (11), Benfica (10), PSG (10), Sporting Clube de Portugal (10), Stuttgart (10), Manchester City (8), Dinamo Zagreb (8), Shakhtar Donetsk (7)

Eliminated: Bologna (5), Sparta Prague (4), RB Leipzig (3), Girona (3), Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) (3), Sturm Graz (3), RB Salzburg (3), BSC Young Boys (1), Slovan Bratislava (0)

The matchups for Matchday 8, or "Matchday Mayhem," are here.

The live standings, which will update during games and become the final standings around 5 p.m. ET, are here. (The knockout phase draw will be Friday.)

And we at Yahoo Sports will help you make sense of all the twists and turns, the highlights and controversies, below.

Live6 updates

Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:25 PM EST
How to watch today
First things first: In the U.S., every game is on Paramount+.
The question: Which of the 18 should you choose?
The best answer: All of them. Watch the "Golazo Show," which is soccer's best take on "NFL RedZone." It's whiparound coverage of every goal, big chance and more. The CBS Sports crew — unlike the Premier League and other broadcasters who've tried similar concepts — has done an excellent job with it. And it might as well have been designed specifically for a day like today.
But if you'd prefer less chaos, Man City-Brugge is probably the pick. If you have a second screen, go with that and PSG-Stuttgart.
Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM EST
Scenarios, and how to follow them
There are literally thousands of potential outcomes today. With 18 simultaneous games and goal differential inevitably a factor, the scenarios are endless.
So, our advice is the same as it was ahead of Matchday 1: Don't even try to process them.
There are a few digestible ones, of course:
Manchester City must beat Club Brugge
PSG must win or draw to be safe. A loss at Stuttgart, a Man City win, and results for Benfica and Sporting Clube de Portugal would eliminate the Parisians.
However, all four of PSG, Stuttgart, Benfica and Sporting would go through, no matter their results, if Man City doesn't win.
Atlético Madrid and AC Milan, the two teams on 15 points, can clinch a bye to the Round of 16 with a win
But so much is contingent on so much else that the full list of permutations is impossible to internalize. So, settle in, watch the games, and follow along; we'll try to help you understand the implications of each goal.
Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM EST
Lineups
Liverpool, having already clinched a spot in the top two, will play a second-string team on this final matchday. (There is no difference between finishing first and second.)
Elsewhere, there's some rotation for teams already secure in the knockout-rounds, but most are playing their strongest lineups.
Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:08 PM EST
A first outside Man City's stadium
A decisive evening at Manchester City begin with a fire outside the Etihad Stadium.
It has been extinguished, authorities say nobody was harmed, and the game is set to go ahead as planned. But still, not the ideal start to the night...
The Associated Press has more details here.
Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:07 PM EST
Man City's lineup for their win-or-go-home match vs. Club Brugge
Tonight’s line-up 💪
XI | Ederson, Nunes, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Foden, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Grealish, Savinho, Wright, Alleyne, O'Reilly, Lewis, McAtee#ManCity | #UCL pic.twitter.com/Spfi6dz1PT
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 29, 2025
Wed, January 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM EST
Matchday Mayhem begins in one hour
Welcome to Yahoo Sports' live coverage of the final day of the Champions League group phase! Keep it locked right here for all the latest news, highlights, scenarios and scores as 18 games kick off at 3 p.m. ET with three teams facing elimination including Manchester City and PSG.