We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
There is a world of difference between playing in front of 80,000 people under the lights at the Santiago Bernabéu and stepping out at an empty Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano, the 6,000-capacity venue at Real Madrid’s training ground. So for a Shakhtar Donetsk side missing seven first-teamers, there was zero fear factor at Madrid’s temporary home when they defeated Zinédine Zidane’s men 3-2 on Matchday 1. They beat Madrid again back in Ukraine but Los Blancos still found a way through.
So too did Paris Saint-Germain, despite losing two of their first three games. It could have been even worse for last season’s runners-up, who kept their bid on track with a 2-0 victory at İstanbul Başakşehir on Matchday 2 courtesy of a Moise Kean double. With it, the forward on loan from Everton became the youngest Italian player to score on his first Champions League start (20 years and 243 days), surpassing the great Alessandro Del Piero (20 years and 308 days).
Blue was the colour in Manchester, where the Reds of United were one of four past winners to fall (along with Ajax, Internazionale and Marseille) but City advanced with the competition’s joint-highest points total and just one goal conceded. That was the best defensive record of the group stage and all the more notable for their costly defensive failings in past campaigns. Their fellow light blues of Lazio joined them in the knockout rounds, in their case for the first time since 2000 and only after a mighty scare in their final match against Club Brugge: a 2-2 draw in which a 92nd-minute shot from the Belgian side shook their crossbar.
Last but not least, the world of football was left feeling blue after the passing of Diego Maradona on 25 November; Napoli duly renamed their stadium in his honour. Just two weeks later, on the final day of the group stage, another great name was mourned in Paolo Rossi, a European Cup winner with Juventus and 1982 world champion with Italy’s Azzurri. It’s been that kind of year.
- Borussia Mönchengladbach v Manchester City
- Lazio v Bayern München
- Atlético de Madrid v Chelsea
- RB Leipzig v Liverpool
- Porto v Juventus
- Barcelona v Paris St-Germain
- Sevilla v Borussia Dortmund
- Atalanta v Real Madrid
First legs to be played on 16, 17, 23 and 24 February; second legs to be played on 9, 10, 16 and 17 March.
We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
There is a world of difference between playing in front of 80,000 people under the lights at the Santiago Bernabéu and stepping out at an empty Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano, the 6,000-capacity venue at Real Madrid’s training ground. So for a Shakhtar Donetsk side missing seven first-teamers, there was zero fear factor at Madrid’s temporary home when they defeated Zinédine Zidane’s men 3-2 on Matchday 1. They beat Madrid again back in Ukraine but Los Blancos still found a way through.
So too did Paris Saint-Germain, despite losing two of their first three games. It could have been even worse for last season’s runners-up, who kept their bid on track with a 2-0 victory at İstanbul Başakşehir on Matchday 2 courtesy of a Moise Kean double. With it, the forward on loan from Everton became the youngest Italian player to score on his first Champions League start (20 years and 243 days), surpassing the great Alessandro Del Piero (20 years and 308 days).
Blue was the colour in Manchester, where the Reds of United were one of four past winners to fall (along with Ajax, Internazionale and Marseille) but City advanced with the competition’s joint-highest points total and just one goal conceded. That was the best defensive record of the group stage and all the more notable for their costly defensive failings in past campaigns. Their fellow light blues of Lazio joined them in the knockout rounds, in their case for the first time since 2000 and only after a mighty scare in their final match against Club Brugge: a 2-2 draw in which a 92nd-minute shot from the Belgian side shook their crossbar.
Last but not least, the world of football was left feeling blue after the passing of Diego Maradona on 25 November; Napoli duly renamed their stadium in his honour. Just two weeks later, on the final day of the group stage, another great name was mourned in Paolo Rossi, a European Cup winner with Juventus and 1982 world champion with Italy’s Azzurri. It’s been that kind of year.
- Borussia Mönchengladbach v Manchester City
- Lazio v Bayern München
- Atlético de Madrid v Chelsea
- RB Leipzig v Liverpool
- Porto v Juventus
- Barcelona v Paris St-Germain
- Sevilla v Borussia Dortmund
- Atalanta v Real Madrid
First legs to be played on 16, 17, 23 and 24 February; second legs to be played on 9, 10, 16 and 17 March.
We’ve had 96 matches across 51 days, 289 goals scored at a rate of 3.01 per game and no fans to be seen at the majority of matches: a brief summary of a condensed – and unique – Champions League group stage.
And if we’re talking numbers, Bayern München deserve an early mention: the holders lead the way once more with most goals (18) and most points (16, together with Manchester City). But what of the other stories that stood out in this packed programme? Here are a few from a campaign that offered us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
Dynamo Kyiv coach Mircea Lucescu was busy proving that age is a state of mind, setting a milestone on Matchday 1 by becoming the oldest manager to take charge of a Champions League fixture at 75 years and 83 days. That same group featured Ferencváros, a venerable name from a past era making their return to this stage of the competition after 25 years. The Hungarian champions’ two-goal comeback against Lucescu’s team a week later, to earn their only point, must have left the Romanian manager feeling all of those 75 years.
The on-field golden oldies left their mark as well. It was against Kyiv that Cristiano Ronaldo (above), now 35, scored his 750th career goal for club and country, when Juventus beat the Ukrainian side in Turin on 2 December. On the same night, Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud showed his own enduring instincts in emphatic style by hitting four goals at Sevilla to become the oldest hat-trick scorer in the competition (at 34 years and 63 days) since Real Madrid’s Ferenc Puskás (38 years and 173 days) against Feyenoord in 1965.
Liverpool’s blooding of Billy Koumetio on Matchday 6 saw him become the youngest player in their long European Cup history – at 18 years and 25 days – and continued a trend across an injury-hit campaign in which Curtis Jones, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams, Caoimhin Kelleher and Leighton Clarkson all stepped up to plug gaps on Europe’s biggest stage.
They were not the only new faces to catch the eye. When Barcelona defeated Ferencváros in October they did so with two 17-year-olds, Ansu Fati and Pedri, both getting on the scoresheet. Dortmund, meanwhile, unveiled a new potential scoring prodigy in Youssoufa Moukoko, who became the Champions League’s youngest player with his second-half introduction at Zenit just 18 days after his 16th birthday. And the German club’s erstwhile teen sensation, the now 20-year-old Erling Braut Haaland, is maturing nicely: the joint-top scorer in the group stage added to his list of landmarks on Matchday 4 by becoming the fastest player to reach 15 goals in the competition. It took him just 12 appearances – and he added another before the final whistle.
There were milestones for clubs too: Bayern achieved a record 15th straight win in the Champions League by beating Salzburg 3-1 at home on 25 November. Compatriots Mönchengladbach made it to the last 16 for the first time in the Champions League era (helped by the tireless running of Christoph Kramer, who covered more kilometres than any other player in the group stage). At the other end of the scale, Russian newcomers Krasnodar were eliminated but not before picking up a maiden group-stage win against Rennes to secure a Europa League spot. And the Danes of Midtjylland finished bottom of Group D but with heads held high, after claiming their first Champions League points against Atalanta and Liverpool.
