Most Important Champions League Week 4 Games

The group stage of the UEFA Champions League is halfway to completion, with teams beginning to make the advancement picture clearer. With the fourth matchday of the group stage coming up, teams will need to take advantage of these three most important matches to either make or break their odds of not just winning the competition, but advancing to its next round.

3. Napoli vs. Besiktas

While both of these teams are not teams that would be considered contenders to lift the Champions League trophy, their meeting this week is a very important one to the outlook of Group B. With Napoli atop the group at 6 points and Besiktas right behind on 5 points, the winner of this match will lead the group heading into the final two matches of group play. However, a draw could vault Benfica ahead of both teams, as they sit in third place on 4 points. This should lead to both teams playing to win rather than being content with a single point.

2. Bayer Leverkusen vs. Tottenham Hotspur

For Tottenham, their Champions League campaign could hang in the balance in this match. Currently in second place in their group, a Spurs loss to Leverkusen would put them in third place in the group with just two games to make up the difference. With a third place finish in the group banishing them to the Europa League, this game will be treated with great urgency by Spurs, and could see them play for a draw as that would keep them safely in second place heading into their next match against bottom team CSKA Moscow.

1. Barcelona vs. Manchester City

It is simple for Manchester City at this point, they really need to get at least a point from Barcelona. Not only would a loss open the door for Borussia Monchengladbach to jump over them and send City in a perilous third place position, but it would also dent the confidence of this City team to win this tournament, something that was thought to be legitimately possible early on when Pep Guardiola's team was having such a dominant start to the season.