In some ways, as one would expect, the 2024-25 Champions League is righting itself.
Early upstarts like Sparta Prague and VfB Stuttgart continued to slide this week in Matchday 5. Teams with major recent Champions League success, like Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, continued their rebounds from slow starts. Liverpool (2019 champion), Inter Milan (2023 runner-up), Barcelona (many-times champion) and Borussia Dortmund (2023 runner-up) are the top four teams in the table. Things are starting to make sense.
Then again, Manchester City blew a three-goal lead and fell to 17th place. Real Madrid lost for the third time in four Champions League games and are currently in 24th place, right behind Feyenoord and Club Brugge ... and, incredibly, one spot ahead of Paris Saint-Germain. RB Leipzig, third in the Bundesliga, is 34th out of 36 in this competition.
With three matches to go, this competition is only making so much sense. And in these parts, we like nonsense. Let's once again go country by country, looking at who's doing well, who's flagging and who's likely only got three more matches left in this year's competition.