UEFA Champions League, Matchday 4: Manchester City shocked, Chelsea drop points

The Champions League knockout stage has been set, and now the qualified teams will await Monday’s draw, when they’ll discover their fate. A number of the groups went down to the wire, with about half the spots not being locked down until Tuesday and Wednesday’s games.

Juventus narrowly held onto their spot with a draw on Tuesday, while Basel did enough at Anfield to knock out Liverpool and clinch Group B’s second slot. Monaco beat Zenit to clinch their place on the final day, while Group D’s two knockout stage representatives were determined before the last day.

Jose Mourinho has played with his lineup for yet another Champions League match. It’s hardly a terrible team, as Mourinho has picked a good chunk of first choice players, but the likes of Kurt Zouma and Didier Drogba are also getting starts.

Maribor have a young team, with two teenagers in the starting XI. That includes 18-year-old Luka Zahovic, the red hot striker who is hoping to carry his league form to Europe.

After pulling off two solid draws in their first two matches, Maribor ran into a buzzsaw on the last matchday. Chelsea destroyed them, putting up six goals. Will the Slovenians fare better at home on Wednedsay (2:45 p.m. ET, FOX Sports regional networks)?

Chelsea will be in great shape no matter what the result, and they’ll lock up a place in the next round of the Champions League with a win on Saturday. Meanwhile, Maribor’s faint hopes of qualifying will all but disappear if they don’t at least snag a point in this game.

PSG enter the match heavy favorites thanks to the considerable talent gap between the two teams and the Parisians 16-match unbeaten streak. APOEL’s stingy defense doesn’t make a draw impossible, but they’re going to be tested heavily by a PSG attack that has plenty of weapons available, even with Zlatan still out.

PSG’s defense is also fully healthy for the first time in awhile with Marquinhos having made his return over the weekend.

Standing in Barca’s way is Group F foe Ajax who need three points badly to avoid falling even farther behind a potential place in the knockout round. Barca pulled away late from Ajax in the first meeting between the two sides at the Camp Nou, but one suspects things will be different at the Amsterdam ArenA.

There’s plenty on the line for Barca as well though besides trying to avoid another loss. A win for the Spanish side combined with a APOEL loss or draw against Paris Saint-Germain would guarantee Barca a place in the Round of 16.

With Roma facing Bayern Munich in Germany, there’s every reason to believe that City could jump over the Italian side with a win over CSKA Moscow. Considering how poorly things have gone for Manuel Pellegrini’s team, that’s not bad. The trouble of course is that City have virtually no room for error at this point. Finishing second to Bayern would be acceptable, but failing to advance to the knockout round would be seen as an abject failure.

With City’s league form a bit up and down, the pressure on Pellegrini would become immense and who knows how City’s ownership might react. For the moment though, they just need to defeat CSKA.

Roma had started out their group campaign impressively, with a big win over CSKA Moscow and an impressive draw at Manchester City, but the loss they took to Bayern Munich completely changed the tone of their campaign so far. They’re still in second on four points, though another loss could see them fall in the standings, and another heavy loss could cripple them thanks to goal differential. For Bayern, a win doesn’t just put them through to the knockout rounds, it also cements them as the top side in Group E.

Key player - Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich)

When BATE head to Lviv to play Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday, they’ll be hoping to avoid being embarrassed like they were when they welcomed the Ukrainian champions to Belarus and were beaten 7-0 a few weeks ago. That result moved Shakhtar up above BATE and into second place in the group, and the Belarusian outfit need a win to jump back into a progression spot this week.

Unfortunately for BATE, it’s hard to envisage them winning away against a vastly superior Shakhtar side. In Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano, the Ukrainians boast the Champions League’s top scorer, and he’ll no doubt be looking to feast on the messy BATE back line again in this match. When these sides met in Borisov late last month, Adriano scored a quite remarkable five goals.

Paris Saint-Germain can wrap up a spot in the Round of 16 and hold on to the top spot in Group F with a win over APOEL on Wednesday, combined with some help from Barcelona. PSG needs the Spanish side to defeat or draw against Ajax in order to guarantee they’ll advance with a win of their own. Their chances are good of taking care of business against the Cypriot side, but given Barca’s recent struggles, it’s hard to predict if they’ll get the help they need.

PSG enter the match heavy favorites thanks to the considerable talent gap between the two teams and the Parisians 16-match unbeaten streak. APOEL’s stingy defense doesn’t make a draw impossible, but they’re going to be tested heavily by a PSG attack that has plenty of weapons available, even with Zlatan still out.

Koke has a habit of making really difficult things look really easy. A backheel on a ball shin high while running at full speed to beat the goalkeeper is one of those things.

And yet here is he, doing it again.

Anderlecht start 17-year-old midfield sensation Youri Tielemans in the centre of the park, though highly rated young striker Aleksandar Mitrović will have to wait for his turn at the Emirates, with coach Besnik Hasi preferring Ivorian striker Cyriac up top for this one.

Anderlecht (4-2-3-1): Silvio Proto; Frank Acheampong, Olivier Deschacht, Chancel Mbemba, Anthony Vanden Borre; Youri Tielemans, Sacha Kljestan; Ibrahima Conté, Dennis Praet, Andy Najar; Cyriac.

Another embarrassing Champions League exit could be on the horizon for Juventus if they don’t come up with a big performance on Tuesday. They’ve lost both of their road matches so far, and need to get three points on the board at home against Olympiacos (2:45 p.m. ET, FOX Sports Regional).

The only players Juve are missing for sure are defenders Patrice Evra and Andrea Barzagli. However, there are slight doubts over a long list of players -- Kwadwo Asamoah, Martin Caceres and Angelo Ogbonna are all carrying knocks. Only Jorge Benitez is out for sure for Olympiacos, but they’re sweating the fitness of Alberto Botia and Alejandro Dominguez.

For a few minutes on Matchday 3, it appeared that Anderlecht were going to create some drama in Group D of the UEFA Champions League. Andy Najar fired them to a surprise lead over Arsenal, but they fell apart in stunning fashion, conceding twice after the 89th minute to drop all three points.

That collapse has Anderlecht in an awful position. They need to win away to Emirates Stadium to have any hope of advancing to the next round. And unless Galatasaray pulls off a similar upset against Borussia Dortmund, Group D will instantly become the competition’s least intriguing.