Four Italians ahead is possible. With Bologna’s chances now hanging more on arithmetic than on logic, Inter is aiming straight for a place in the direct round of 16, while Milan, Juventus and Atalanta with different chances look to the last 180 minutes of the first phase of the Champions League with the realistic playoff goal but still some chance of getting into the top eight. Starting from the Opta algorithm which before the start of the competition had set the bar for direct qualification to the round of 16 at 16 points in 98% of the simulations, at 15 in 73% and at 14 in 28%. While for the places from 9th to 24th, which are worth access to the playoffs, the simulations gave qualification at 10 points in 99% of cases, at 9 in 69% of cases and at 8 in 16% of cases.
