Champions League permutations - December 7

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With the Champions League reaching the final round of group stage matches, we look at the permutations for Tuesday evening's games.

Premier League pair Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United have both already secured a spot in the last 16 of this year's competition, but both will be keen to finish the year on a high by topping their groups and avoiding the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in next week's draw.

Group A
1) Tottenham 10
2) Inter 10
3) FC Twente 5
4) Werder Bremen 2

FC Twente v Tottenham
Werder Bremen v Inter

Tottenham and Inter currently sit in the top two spots, both on 10 points, and are both already through to the knockout stages. Spurs only need to match Inter's result in order to finish top of the group, thanks to their superior head-to-head record against the European champions. FC Twente have already tied up a place in the Europa League for the second half of the season, thanks to their own superior head-to-head record against bottom placed Werder Bremen. The Bundesliga side have already been eliminated from European competition.

Group B
1) Schalke 10
2) Lyon 9
3) Benfica 6
4) Hapoel Tel-Aviv 4

Benfica v Schalke
Lyon v Hapoel Tel-Aviv

Schalke and Lyon have both already secured a path through to the last 16. Schalke know a win in Portugal will seal top spot in the group, while Lyon will need to win and hope the German side drop points to have any chance of finishing in first place. Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Benfica will fight for the consulation prize of a Europa League berth. Hapoel will be boosted by their emphatic 3-0 win over the Lisbon outfit on matchday 5, which gave them the head-to-head advantage over their Portuguese rivals. The Israelis need to win in France and Benfica to fail to do the same against Schalke in order to leapfrog them into third.

Group C
1) Man United 13
2) Valencia 10
3) Rangers 5
4) Bursaspor 0

Bursaspor v Rangers
Manchester United v Valencia

As in Groups A and B, we already know who will be going through from Group C. Manchester United and Valencia will take first and second spot, and their match at Old Trafford will act as a play-off to determine who wins the group. United currently lead the way by three points, but any win for Valencia will see them overtake the three-time European champions. Rangers have already tied-up third spot, making their clash with Turkish champions Bursaspor a dead-rubber.

Group D
1) Barcelona 11
2) Copenhagen 7
3) Rubin Kazan 6
4) Panathinaikos 2

Perhaps somewhat unsurpisingly, Barcelona have already wrapped-up top spot in Group D. Second place will go to either FC Copenhagen or Rubin Kazan, with Panathinaikos already certain to finish bottom. Copenhagen can secure second with a win at home to the eliminated Greeks. If they fail to do so and Kazan can better the Danes' result in their own match at Barcelona, it will be the Russians that progress. Kazan will take heart from their historic win at Camp Nou last October.

FourFourTwo.com's live text coverage of Tuesday evening's Champions League matches will get underway at 19:30 GMT

Gary Parkinson

Gary Parkinson is a freelance writer, editor, trainer, muso, singer, actor and coach. He spent 14 years at FourFourTwo as the Global Digital Editor and continues to regularly contribute to the magazine and website, including major features on Euro 96, Subbuteo, Robert Maxwell and the inside story of Liverpool's 1990 title win. He is also a Bolton Wanderers fan.