1
Arsenal
24
2
Bayern
21
3
Liverpool
18
4
Tottenham
17
5
Barcelona
16
6
Chelsea
16
7
Sporting CP
16
8
Man City
16
9
Real Madrid
15
10
Inter
15
11
PSG
14
12
Newcastle
14
13
Juventus
13
14
Atletico Madrid
13
15
Atalanta
13
16
Leverkusen
12
17
Borussia Dortmund
11
18
Olympiakos
11
19
Club Brugge
10
20
Galatasaray
10
21
Monaco
10
22
Qarabag
10
23
Bodø/Glimt
9
24
Benfica
9
25
Marseille
9
26
Pafos
9
27
Union Saint-Gilloise
9
28
PSV
8
29
Athletic Bilbao
8
30
Napoli
8
31
Copenhagen
8
32
Ajax
6
33
Eintracht Frankfurt
4
34
Slavia Praha
3
35
Villarreal
1
36
Kairat
1
Ajax will host the European champions in the first leg on Wednesday, a game that comes straight after their loss to lowly Heracles, who recovered from a run of three straight losses before they hosted, and beat Ajax 1 – 0 on Saturday. Ajax are five points behind PSV Eindhoven in the league race after that loss and they will be keen to get back to winning ways when Real Madrid comes touring. At the group stage level, Ajax finished second to Bayern Munich in Group E after wrapping it up with a 3 – 3 draw with the Germans, leaving a two point cushion between the two with Bayern having managed 14 points. Ajax have not tasted defeat in the last 14 Champions League matches; of course they started from the preliminary stages in this campaign. Still they have done well, and they have no loss in the last nine Champions League games at home. They will however have a different kind of challenge when they take on Real Madrid. The Spanish giants had a shaky start to the season but have recovered well and will have their tails up after an impressive 3 – 1 win over Atletico Madrid on Saturday. Real are unbeaten in the last seven matches and six of them are wins. At the group stages Real lost twice to CSKA Moscow but in the process finished top of Group G. The two losses are among the four losses the team has suffered in the last 18 Champions League matches. Real have won eight of their last 10 away matches in the Champions League and have failed to score just once in the last 16 away matches in the competition.