In the final round of the Champions League it is Spain’s best game against the German football kings.

A rematch of Last season’s finale between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund takes center stage on Tuesday before Barcelona hosts Bayern Munich on Wednesday, beginning the next chapter of a rather one-sided rivalry in Europe’s top club competition.

All four teams have been European champions for the last 30 years and have had a mixed start to this season’s revised format.

Dortmund won both opening games – 3-0 at Club Brugge and 7-1 at home against Celtic – to be the early leader and top scorer of the league phase, in which all 36 teams play eight games: four home and four away.

Just like last season, when they reached the Champions League final against all expectations and then lost to Madrid, Dortmund were far away more impressive in Europe than in the Bundesliga. In fact, Dortmund lost at Union Berlin four days later after beating Celtic.

Madrid, meanwhile, suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Lille, the defending champions’ first loss in the competition since the semi-finals of the 2022/23 season.

In fact, the second round of games brought a few surprises, including Bayern losing 1-0 at Aston Villa, ending their unbeaten streak under new coach Vincent Kompany.

Now Bayern travel to Barcelona looking for a seventh consecutive victory in this tie, a run that also includes a humiliating 8-2 defeat for Barca in the quarter-finals in 2020. Hansi Flick was in charge of Bayern that evening and is now the coach of Barcelona.

Man City record

If Manchester City beat Sparta Prague at home on Wednesday, the English champions will set the record for consecutive unbeaten games in the competition’s history – even predating the 1992 European Cup era.

City are currently unbeaten in 25 games, level with Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side from 2007 to 2009.

The last defeat for Pep Guardiola’s team in the Champions League was the 3-1 defeat against Real Madrid in the 2022 semi-final second leg, which cost City a place in the final this season.

Since then, City has won 17 games and drawn eight, having won the competition in 2022-2023 and being eliminated on penalties by Madrid in the quarter-finals in 2023-24 after two draws.

Unlikely high-flyer

Of the seven teams with a maximum of six points, Brest is undoubtedly the most surprising.

This is the French team’s unannounced debut in Europe – in any competition – after an unexpected third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season. Things couldn’t be going better.

A 2-1 win over Austrian champions Sturm Graz was followed by a 4-0 win against another Austrian team, Salzburg, in the second round.

They will be the easiest opponents Brest will face. Now the hard work begins, with German champions Bayer Leverkusen facing off on Wednesday.

Leverkusen doesn’t travel to Brest, a pretty port town in Brittany, but to Guingamp – about 114 kilometers (71 miles) away. That’s why Brest Stadium does not meet UEFA standards, so the home games have been postponed.

Bad starts

With each team playing eight games in the new league system, starting with consecutive defeats is not the nightmare start it would have been under the old format, when there were six games per team in the group stage.

However, AC Milan, Leipzig, Girona, Salzburg, Sturm Graz, Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade will be desperate to get at least a point in the third round of games.

Salzburg and the Young Boys haven’t even scored a goal.

One of the eight teams with no points will definitely be successful: tournament newcomers Girona will host Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday.

However, Leipzig could easily have zero points after three games when they host Liverpool on Wednesday – a game made even more exciting since former Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp was hired as head of global football at Red Bull, part of its international network of clubs Leipzig also belongs.

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Steve Douglas is there https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer