Quote from: ShowOff on Today at 08:14:04 PM

Quote from: temple on Today at 01:25:09 PM

Quote from: ShowOff on October 17, 2023, 09:43:29 PM

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The game against Napoli was probably their qualification for the round of 16 already because that was the game when most expected them to potentially not win all 3 points, but now that it ended with a win and since the Union Berlin game also ended with 3 points for them, it is unlikely that they will get into similar situations during the next games. There is no need to win against Napoli at home as a draw would probably be enough and the two games against Braga won't be a failure either. The big pressure is already gone.

I agree with you, Real Madrid's pressure to qualify for the round of 16 will never be great as long as they manage to win all their games against weaker teams like Union Berlin and Braga. I think Real Madrid only needs 6 more points to ensure they advance from the group stage, meaning they only need 2 win from the next 4 matches. That scenario must be true if Braga and Union Berlin lose to Napoli, as well as Real Madrid.

No one doubts that Real Madrid failed this season in the group stage, if that exists then they are just fighting with their own principles that don't know Real Madrid. The real challenge for Real Madrid is in the last 16, quarter-finals or semi-finals if they succeed, but I don't want to talk too much because I don't know who the potential opponents will be.

6 points will do the deal for sure and I am not even sure if mathematically they could still fail then. I would say that 12 points in the group with their win against Napoli it is pretty safe to say that they would be part of the round of 16. But I guess motivation is high to definitely finish as first in the group in order to avoid some hard drawings in the earlier rounds of the knockout stages. I think it was last season when we had some very early big games between top teams. On the one hand it is fun because we don't have to wait for too long until we finally get to see some spectacular games, but on the other hand it's bad for later rounds if the favorites knockout each other in the round of 16 and round of 8 already.