Wrapping Up: Champions League Group Stage
In last week's Champions League article I promised drama. I said that this week would be brilliant and full of drama. Turns out I was right. I also could have said the sun would rise on Thursday after a period of night time on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Both things are equally as obvious but I will take any win where I can get it. The group stage broke down vaguely the way most people thought it was. There was disappointment and intrigue abound. So without getting too deep and complex with my intro, let's wrap it up.
Group A
Every year half of the groups are super boring because two teams are guaranteed to advance to the knockout round. This is one of those groups. Bayern München and Atlético de Madrid ran away with this group and will both have a place in the knockout stage. FC Salzberg earns the Europa League spot by finishing third.
Group B
The group where every single member was alive to begin the week ends in a weirdly anticlimactic way. Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan drew meaning that as long as Real Madrid either defeated or drew with Borussia Mönchengladbach then both of those two teams were going through to the knockout stage. That is exactly what happened. Real Madrid takes the top spot in the league with a 2-0 win over Gladbach. Gladbach slots into the two spot. Donetsk slides into the three position and gains the Europa League Brith, which should be seen as a success. Inter Milan’s utter failure in this group is the real story. For them to not come away with at least a Europa League birth should be seen as an abject failure. There is some real change that needs to happen in Milan, and it needs to happen soon.
Group C
Group C returns us to status quo as Manchester City only dropped two points during the whole six game group stage. FC Porto also looked strong throughout the group and neither of the other two members in this group posed any real threat. Olympiacos FC wound up with the Europa League spot off of a tie breaker with Marseille.
Group D
Liverpool quite quickly ran away with the lead in this group. The drama came from the Atalanta and AFC Ajax match up we got on the final day. They were separated by one point, Atalanta holding the lead. Ajax could not pull off the Cinderella story this year and will instead be going to the Europa League. Atalanta will take their exciting brand of high octane soccer to the knockout stage.
Group E
As the pattern continues, we had a completely boring group with Chelsea and Sevilla running away with this. The Europa League competition didn’t even have any drama as FC Krasnodar had the comfortable four point lead over Stade Rennais FC.
Group F
The pattern still continues as we have a group with drama Borussia Dortmund had a semi comfortable lead going into the final day and maintained that taking the top spot in the group. SS Lazio and Club Brugge were separated by just one point at the start of the day. The two clubs played a fantastically exciting 2-2 draw of a game with plenty of drama. The game keeps SS Lazio in the second spot and lands them a place in the final sixteen. Club Brugge fall just a bit short and wind up in the three spot. The Europa League beckons to Club Brugge and the chances they have in that competition cannot be understated.
Group G
What a wacky group this one was. Barcelona and Juventus were two of the four members and there was never a single doubt they would not go through. We only ended up with one match-up between Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo as COVID knocked Ronaldo out of the first game between the two teams. COVID continues to ruin everything fun in this world. However the second game really did show the difference between the quality in these two teams. Juventus are primed to go far in the contest. Barcelona’s training grounds may as well be on fire. Oh and Dynamo Kyiv gets the Europa league spot but who cares?
Group H
The disappointment in the hearts of Manchester United fans is immeasurable. Manchester United had a commanding lead of the group after the first four games having won three of them. However the team dropped a game to last place team Bașaksehir. They closed out the last two games with losses to the two teams that came out ahead in the group standings. Paris Saint Germain and RB Leipzig wound up with the final two spots in the knockout stage. Leipzig needed the win against United to advance and they came out in the first half and absolutely dominated the game. United looked lost and without Anthony Martial or Edinson Cavani they lacked the firepower to get goals back in the second half. United will now be going to the Europa League.
There we have the end of the Champions League group stage. All that is left is to wait for Monday’s knockout round draw. The Champions League is about to hit its stride as we enter one of the most exciting periods of professional soccer. Let the games begin.