With 18 games kicking off at the same time on Wednesday, The Athletic writers explain which one they are most looking forward to - and why

It's going to be a wild day of soccer as Wednesday will see 18 Champions League matches kick off simultaneously. As the league phase comes to an end, all of those matches, except two, will have a direct impact on who makes it into the playoff stage and who is on the outside looking in.

Day 8 of the Champions League league phase was played this week (all matches

Here's the state of play after the conclusion of the first stage of the Champions League: Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, Aston Villa. Monaco or Brest vs. Paris Saint-Germain or Benfica (for the right to play Liverpool or Barcelona)

The Champions League’s inaugural league phase has drawn to a close following a thrilling matchday eight in Europe.It was an action-packed final round of fixtures in the league phase with goals

The league phase of this year’s Champions League was concluded on Wednesday night. All the 18 games were played simultaneously around Europe. Here’s how the final group fixtures ended up: PSV 3-2 Liverpool Bayern Munich 3-1 Slovan Bratislava Dortmund 3-1 Shakhtar Donetsk Leverkusen 2-0 Sparta Prague Girona 1-2 Arsenal Barcelona 2-2 Atalanta Brest