Champions League groups climax with Manchester United, Newcastle on brink and uncertainty for PSG

London: All options are open for struggling Manchester United and injury-hit Newcastle in their final Champions League group games this week: Advance to the pre-quarters, drop into the Europa League, or suffer the financial and sporting blow of outright elimination.

Man United must rebound from an embarrassing 3-0 loss Saturday at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League and needs to beat Bayern Munich, which already advanced a month ago.

Newcastle hosts AC Milan in a must-win meeting of two teams facing the same jeopardy in the competition’s tightest group, where Paris Saint-Germain and Kylian Mbapp can yet deny them both.

Four places in the pre-quarters are left to fight for and the Premier League risks having just Manchester City and Arsenal in the draw on December 18.

That would be England’s weakest challenge in the knockout draw for 11 years and at the worst possible time. Bonus extra entries in the revamped 36-team Champions League next season are given to the two countries whose teams have the best collective record across the three UEFA competitions this season. Man United is last in the Group A standings, a point behind both Copenhagen and Galatasaray and must beat Bayern while hoping the other two play to a draw in Denmark.

Newcastle and seven-time champion Milan are tied on five points in Group F and only a win on Wednesday can lift either above PSG a couple of points ahead in second place.

PSG heads to group leader Borussia Dortmund knowing a point is enough to seal the head-to-head tiebreaker against Milan, but not against Newcastle. Dortmund already secured its pre-quarters place.

The other two pre-quarters places worth an initial UEFA prize money payment of 9.6 million euros (USD 10.3 million) will be decided in showdown games where teams in second place host a third-place opponent. Napoli needs only a draw against Braga on Tuesday and would advance even with a loss by one goal because its overall group difference is better. Real Madrid already won that group before visiting Union Berlin. A draw would suit Porto against Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday because of beating the Ukrainian champion in the group opener in September.