Battle for Last 16 Hots Up Halfway Through Group Stages

As the race for spots in the knock-out round intensifies, we take a look at the crucial fixtures which are likely to decide who will be advancing and who will be exiting Europe’s premier club competition.

Highly-flying Manchester City will be looking to book their advancement to the next stage when they travel to Italy on 22nd November. They will take on Napoli as the winner of that match looks set to be the team who will be joining Bayern Munich out of Group A. Manchester United will be hoping to put their recent troubles behind them as their home fixture on the same night as the City match against Benfica will probably decides who tops Group C.

Ryan Giggs will be hoping he can re-capture his heroic actions

Lyon host Ajax on 22nd November as the fallen giants will be fighting it out to join favourites to emerge from the group, Real Madrid, in the knockout stages of the tournament. Valencia welcome Bayer Leverkusen to the Mestalla on 1st November as the Spaniards will try to come back into contention for a top two spot with a win against the Bundesliga club.

Arsenal and Marseille seem to be slugging it out for top spot in Group F. They will square up to each other on 1st November at the Emirates Stadium as Borussia Dortmund’s hopes of qualifying look to be all but gone at this stage.

Before you go watch the giants of European football take each other on in the Champions League, watch Clarence Seedorf, Gianluigi Buffon, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Patrick Viera recreate some of the historic moments of the competition:

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