The third day of the 2024/25 Champions League has culminated this Wednesday, October 23, with FC Barcelona's thrashing of Bayern Munich as the highlight of the match. The victory against the Bavarians puts the Catalans fully in the race for direct access to the round of 16 of the tournament, where several teams are beginning to stand out.
And with the new format, only 8 of the 36 participating teams will get through to the next round without having to play the playoffs. For this reason, artificial intelligence has calculated how many points these teams must add to access the next round directly.
Barça, more alive than ever
According to AI, the aspiring teams must add the amount of 16.1 points to qualify for the round of 16 directly. On the other hand, those who hope to have a chance of accessing, at least, the playoffs must accumulate 11.2 points.
As of today, the Blaugranas have 6 points out of a possible 9, so, a priori, they should get 10 more to enter the round of 16 directly. In the search for this objective, the Catalans will face Red Star, Brest, Borussia Dortmund, Benfica and Atalanta, rivals, in principle, inferior to a team that has proven to be the best on the continent at present.