Champions League review: smaller teams struggle but new stars rise

Going up

Manchester City

The relief was palpable, though the celebrations were hardly wild. The 2023 champions had snuck into the top 24 when it had seemed at half-time that Club Brugge would be the latest team to sink City. Brugge went 1-0 up just before the break as City’s midfield of İlkay Gündoğan, Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovačić creaked with age. Hopefully one day we will get to see Pep Guardiola’s half-time team talk in its frenzied glory. Whatever he said worked. Kovačić’s goal began the comeback that Savinhho’s strike for 3-1 completed.

City are in the knockouts, and can still lift the trophy. Here is where the competition’s innovations come in: it’s either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the knockout phase playoff. Little wonder Brugge’s celebrations around a coach’s phone after their own qualification was confirmed took part in front of an emptying Etihad Stadium. A long road lies ahead, and Guardiola, with fresh scratches on his head, lamented what he has lost: “What I wish from the beginning of the season is to have the team back and players fit.”

Lille

In the early weeks of the group stages, France’s lesser light shone while Paris Saint-Germain faltered. All four eventually made the top 24, PSG climbing above Monaco and Brest, leaving the northerners as France’s sole members of the top eight. On Wednesday, Bruno Génésio’s team were brilliant as they destroyed Feyenoord, who had hammered Bayern Munich last time out, with Angel Gomes showing off some outrageous skills. Jonathan David, soon to be a free agent, did his marketability a few favours with another goal. Lille were previously known as a club that spruced up talent but now they are a dangerous opponent.

Inter

When it comes to unfussy campaigns, completed with little drama, Inter’s sets a template for the 36-team Swiss system. An opening stalemate with Man City, one defeat to Bayer Leverkusen and just a single goal conceded. Inter also scored the fewest goals (11) among the top eight. Five of those goals came from Lautaro Martínez, beloved in Milan but misunderstood elsewhere. His hat-trick did for a dangerous Monaco in Wednesday’s 3-0 win.

Heading down

Dinamo Zagreb

One of Uefa’s ideas behind the competition’s revamp was to hand smaller teams a chance to duke it out with the elite. The bottom tranche of the final table, the eliminated 12 teams, aside from the Red Bull clubs’ collective nightmare, served as an indicator of continuing economic inequalities. It was Dinamo who went closest to breaching the velvet rope, finishing outside the top-24 only on goal difference. On a dark night in Croatia’s capital, Milan were beaten but other results went against the team coached by Fabio Cannavaro. Christian Pulisic becoming the first USMNT player to score four goals in a single Champions League season was rather forgotten in the light of fellow American Yunus Musah’s silly pair of yellow cards.

Stuttgart

German football has taken a beating in this season’s Champions League, with RB Leipzig’s implosion. Stuttgart also were left two places out of the top 24 after they were taken apart 4-1 at home by PSG. If there are signs of the Parisians finally evolving into a footballing concern rather than haute-couture item, then Stuttgart, who had enjoyed being back at the top table, fell sadly short. This was previewed as the match where the teams would game the system, settling for the draw that would guide them both through. Nobody told any of that to Ousmane Dembélé, scorer of a hat-trick. “Today we saw what the world’s best is like,” said Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeness. He may have exaggerated slightly: PSG had, in fact, finished 15th.

Juventus

Dissatisfaction continues to envelop the latest attempt to revive Italy’s most dominant force. Juve are in the playoffs but their coach, Thiago Motta, is running short of excuses. His team are way out of the Serie A title chase and were well beaten by Benfica at home on Wednesday. A patched-up defence including Tim Weah at right-back and Weston McKennie were too often bystanders against the speed of Benfica’s attack. Juve may already have had a place booked in the knockouts but to lose so meekly after the weekend’s loss to Napoli was untimely.

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View image in fullscreen Ethan Nwaneri looks like a future star for Arsenal. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

A good week for

Ricardo Pepi (PSV)

With the transfer window open, the Texan, linked with ending West Ham’s long-running search for a striker, may have added to his price-tag and potential earnings with a timely goal against Liverpool. The kid from El Paso has scored at least once in all eight of his starts for PSV this season and his close-range flick from Mauro Júnior’s cross was so deft that the TV commentators were unsure if he had touched it at all. Pepi had given a lively display against an admittedly second-choice Liverpool defence. “No matter what team they have, the first or second team, we know that they have quality players,” said Pepi. Such is the rumour mill at this time of year that he has now been linked with Liverpool themselves.

Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

Becoming, after Wayne Rooney against Fenerbahçe in 2004, the second-youngest English scorer of a Champions League hat-trick, was the latest signpost for one of the breakthrough talents in this season’s Premier League. Rogers was one of the many young players Manchester City let slip from their grasp but he has fought back via loans and outstanding showings for Middlesbrough last season. On a day when Villa rebuffed Arsenal’s move for Ollie Watkins but decided that Jhon Durán was expendable, Rogers reminded us the club has other attacking talent.

Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)

Talking of the flowering of English youth, Arsenal’s 17-year-old became the second-youngest English player to score in the Champions League. Jude Bellingham, when at Borussia Dortmund, retains the record. Playing on the opposite wing to Raheem Sterling, Nwaneri more than matched the performance of a player who not long ago was a prodigy himself. Nwaneri had three shots on goal and nine crosses, and capped it with a superb strike, smashing the ball home with his left foot. “He’s willing to take the initiative to make things happen,” said a delighted Mikel Arteta.

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