Sam Bunce
Football fans were spoiled for choice with 18 UEFA Champions League games being played at the same time across Europe on Wednesday.
The top 8 automatically qualified for the next phase, while the teams that finished between 9th and 24th secured a spot in the knockout play-offs. There is the argument of the persistent demands an extra two games poses, but it is sure to bring further excitement to the competition.
The sides from 25th to 36th were eliminated from the competition entirely, and without an opportunity to try their luck in the Europa League in the first edition of this new format.
Last season’s Premier League champions, Manchester City, have little to boast about following their campaign thus far and only narrowly saved themselves from elimination last night, in what was one of the matchweek’s most anticipated games.
Pep Guardiola, speaking to TNT Sports, said that he told his players that they were out
Club Brugge took a shock lead at The Etihad and Pep Guardiola, speaking to TNT Sports, said that he told his players that they were out, in his decisive team-talk at the interval.
Mateo Kovacic showed all the signs of a Champions League winner though as he carried the ball confidently through central midfield before slotting home for the equaliser.
Meanwhile, half-time substitute Savinho added the important third goal to finally establish a sense of relief among the Citizens.
Club Brugge sneaked into the last play-off slot available, despite their defeat in Manchester as Dinamo Zagreb just missed out. The Croatian side did everything they could, with an unforeseen 2-1 win over AC Milan.
Ballon D’or winner Fabio Cannavaro took charge in his second game of the Champions League with Zagreb, after his appointment at the end of last year, and came back to haunt AC Milan like he did so often when he was on the other side of the white line.
Off the back of a 3-0 win over Zagreb, Arsenal had all but secured the automatic qualification place already. Mikel Arteta gave goalkeeper Neto his first ever start for the Gunners, and this makes him the oldest debutant for them in over 100 years.
In his first Champions League start, the Arsenal youngster claimed his first UCL Player of the Match award
Arnaut Danjuma beat the onrushing Neto to the ball and slid his effort past him for the opener. But, on his return, Ethan Nwaneri showed how he was certainly not put off his stride after his spell with injury, as he cut in off the left and fired past Pau López in goal. In his first Champions League start, the Arsenal youngster claimed his first UCL Player of the Match award.
Just south in Cataluña, Barcelona were automatically qualified before their contest against last season’s Europa League champions kicked off. Atalanta secured 9th place, coming back on two occasions to come away with a point.
PSV’s rampant first-half conviction in front of goal overcame the Premier League’s frontrunners
There was little pressure before proceedings began for Liverpool, who won all 7 of their Champions League games before they travelled to Eredivisie leaders PSV. It was a much changed and younger outfit for the Reds as PSV’s rampant first-half conviction in front of goal overcame the Premier League’s frontrunners, who also finished at the top of the league phase.
Lille hit six against Arne Slot’s former side, Feyenoord, to evade the two extra games of the play-offs, as they concluded an impressive opening run in Europe this season.
At Villa Park, two Champions League winning British clubs faced off against one another with a Morgan Rogers hat-trick sinking Celtic and crucially clinching 8th place. Ollie Watkins, amid interest from Arsenal recently, got himself on the scoresheet before recklessly slipping at his penalty attempt.
Lautaro Martínez also converted three goals for Inter Milan against Monaco, who were reduced to ten men after twelve minutes at the San Siro. The French side still secured a play-off spot and could face PSG in an all-French affair.
PSG won 4-1 away at Stuttgart with Ousmane Dembélé adding to those that acquired a hat-trick on matchweek 8. All of his goals were scored with his right foot and this exemplified his rare ability to strike with similar efficacy from both feet.
He has the lowest minutes per goal ratio in the French top flight this season and has stepped into the limelight following Kylian Mbappe’s departure.
The competition’s most successful club, Real Madrid, managed to qualify for the play-offs following their 3-0 victory over Brest, which was a significant result given their three losses in eight ties in the league phase.
Diego Simeone’s son scored his first ever Champions League goal in only five minutes
Atéltico Madrid have had a better European campaign than their rivals, which has been few and far between over the years. They finished in 5th, which was where they started before any games kicked off on Wednesday and this was one of the only cases where that happened. Diego Simeone’s son scored his first ever Champions League goal in only five minutes to help his team brush RB Salzburg aside.
Another one of the European giants, Bayern Munich, advanced through the play-off places with Bundesliga top scorer Harry Kane getting among the goals against Slovan Bratislava.
Bayer Leverkusen finished 6th and will be looking to start replicating the form of last season throughout all competitions, with their unbeaten record in the league and runner-up finish in the Europa League last term.
Also runners-up in a European competition last season were Dortmund, who through the confident display of the tournament’s joint top scorer, Serhou Guirassy, sent Shakhtar Donetsk out and secured their opportunity at reaching the last 16.
Sporting and Juventus narrowly snuck through, despite neither team picking up maximum points on the final day, and Benfica finished 16th with their 2-0 win in Turin.
The knockout play off draw is at 11am on Friday 31st January to determine which of the teams placed 9th to 24th face off against one another in two legs to progress to the next stage.
Teams in 9th to 16th will play teams 17th to 24th, with Atalanta (9th) or Dortmund (10th), for example, playing Sporting Lisbon (23rd) or Club Brugge (24th), and Manchester City (22nd) will face either Real Madrid (11th) or Bayern Munich (12th).
The first legs of those ties will commence on the 11th/12th February, while the second legs will take place on the 18th/19th February.
For the second leg, the clubs that finished in 9th-16th place in the league phase, will be the home side.
The last 16 will be on the 4th/5th March and 11/12th March, with the final in Munich on 31st May.
Sam Bunce
Featured image courtesy of Janosch Diggelmann via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @avfcofficial via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
In article image 2 courtesy of @championsleague via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
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