The fallout from the Champions League group stage
Title contenders
Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Manchester City have proven to all of us they are the best teams in the Champions League.
The Bavarians went undefeated in the group stage. They humiliated all of their rivals including Barcelona. They scored 22 goals and only conceded three. The Germans also have the runner-up Ballon d’Or in Robert Lewandowski who’s also the second top scorer so far with nine goals.
They look almost as good as the team that won the tournament a few seasons ago.
Manchester City proved, in a group shared with PSG, they are one of the teams to beat and have what it takes to reach the final. They’ve already lost two games this season, against PSG and —with the top spot in the bag — against Leipzig. But they’re as good a bet as Bayern Munich.
Liverpool seem to be heading in the same direction as last year. But there’s a big difference between that team and this one. This year they dominated the hardest group with Atlético Madrid, Milan and Porto. They went undefeated, with 17 goals in favor and only six against. They have to take the next step, and repeat what they did in the 2018-19 season.
Mr. Champions League
There’s no better Champions League player than Cristiano Ronaldo. It doesn’t matter where he plays or who he plays. He has shown over and over again that he will score.
He leads all other players with 140 UCL goals, 17 more than Lionel Messi and 58 more than Lewandowski. He hasn’t been as effective this season as previous seasons like in 2017-18 when he scored 15 goals, or in the 2015-16 when he had 16.
He obviously hasn’t been as good as he was when he scored 17 (all time record) in 2013-14. Yet, with six goals in six games, we all know we can’t count out Ronaldo.
Manchester United hasn’t been as effective as other teams, but every time they needed a goal, Ronaldo stepped up.
He did it in their first win versus Villarreal with a goal in the 95th minute. He did it again versus Atalanta, scoring the third goal in the 3-2 victory. He also prevented losses as he scored twice in the second game against the Italian side.
Ronaldo will try to keep doing what he does best to push Manchester United to a championship.
Can they be better?
Three teams have been quite impressive this season, but not as impressive as we all thought they could be.
I’m talking about Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Real Madrid. There was no doubt all of them would reach the knockout stage but we still can’t be sure they can compete with the real contenders.
We wanted to see how each team would fare this season given Messi joined PSG, making them one of the favorites to win it all. But he hasn’t found himself in Paris and the French team don’t look a true contender.
If, at some point, the trio of Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar manage to play at their true potential, they might be the scariest team in the tournament.
As defending champions, more was expected from Chelsea. They finished second in their group with 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 points behind the weakest Juventus of the last 10 years.
We thought they’d be fighting for the title once more. Their defense has been up to the task, allowing only 3 goals. But they’ve been a little shy on the offensive side as they only scored 13 goals. They have to be more aggressive to stay alive in the knockout stage.
As for Real Madrid, they weren’t seen as favorites but they are the team with the most Champions League titles. In a group with Inter Milan, Shakhtar Donetsk and FC Sheriff Tiraspol, we expected them to finish leaders and maybe go undefeated.
But they barely won some of their games and lost against the weakest team of the three. If they keep playing at this level, they might not go further than the Round of 16.
True deceptions
Barcelona has unequivocally been a deception, not only in the UCL, but in La Liga as well. We all knew after Messi’s departure, the Culés would have a rough time, but it went so bad they sacked Ronald Koeman and brought back a fan favorite in Xavi Hernandez.
Xavi was unable to take this team to the Round of 16, losing to Bayern Munich in the last game of the group stage. However, they now have a chance to compete in the Europa League. This is the first time since the 2000/01 season that Barcelona won’t be in the knockout phase.
Barcelona’s elimination from the Champions League has to be the greatest disappointment this team has suffered in the last couple of years. At least those humiliating defeats in the past came in the knockout stage.
But now they have to look forward and this might be for the best as they could start thinking of a rebuild and start a new era under Xavi.
Dark horse
There was only one team I really wanted to talk about but couldn’t put them in any other category but this one. Ajax has been a pleasant surprise. The reason I put them here instead of a true contender is because of the group they were in.
Beşiktaş, Sporting and Borussia Dortmund haven’t proven to anyone they can compete against the top teams in Europe, so it’s hard for us to determine if Ajax is a top contender or if they only beat lesser teams.
Even though the competition hasn’t been too tough for the “de Godenzonen,” they haven’t lost a game so far and scored 20 goals. If they manage to go deep in the knockout phase, no one should be surprised anymore.