With the memory still very fresh of another Champions League phase that closed abruptly on Wednesday, the sixteen survivors who … They were trapped between ninth and twenty-fourth place and will find out this Friday which rival they will have in the play-offs. Among them there will be two Spaniards: Real Madrid, who repeated the crime they committed the previous season by falling asleep at the last minute at Benfica’s house; and Atlético, attacked by Bodo/Glimt in their Metropolitano fort and forced, like their neighbor, to risk their lives in an intermediate round that Cholo’s centurions hoped to avoid.
Barça will not have to go through that bitter pill, which did its homework at the Camp Nou against Copenhagen and remained, as it did in the previous campaign, within a ‘top 8’ that will allow it to rest its legs in Europe until March. This does not mean, by any means, that the Blaugranas will sleep peacefully in view of the minefield that represents the race towards the final that will be played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
Starting at 12:00 this Friday, the House of European Football in Nyon will clear up the unknowns revealed by a phase that was exciting from start to finish, provided spectacular matches, offered endless anecdotes and set up a handful of statistics that should be taken into account for what is to come.
487 goals were scored, 17 more than in the previous edition, the first under the current format, at a rate of 3.39 per game, with a special preponderance in the second half, which confirmed the success of a reformulation of the competition that sought to increase offensive football and, thereby, elevate the spectacle. Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern led the scoring section, with the Gunners scoring a little more (23) than the Blaugranas and Bavarians.
Mikel Arteta’s team was not the one that gathered the most ball during the first phase, a condition held by Luis Enrique’s PSG with an average of 64% of possession in its eight games which, however, did not help the current champion to overcome the cut among the best eight. Arsenal, eighth in this section with 54.6%, twenty-third in passes made (3,600) and eighteenth in their accuracy (85.5%), were, however, much more incisive and, above all, lethal in front of goal.
The London team collected 131 shots, a lower number than that of six other teams, three of which, by the way, were destined for the ‘playoff’, but managed to climb to fourth place in terms of shots on target (58) and was more effective. In a certain sense, it could be said that he floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, which catapulted him to first place that guarantees him playing all his matches at home, a prize that could be decisive on the path to the Puskas Arena.
To its strength in the outside areas, Arsenal added a defensive power that allowed David Raya to only concede two goals in the seven games that the Spanish international played, to which were added the two that Kairat Almaty scored against Kepa Arrizabalaga this Wednesday in a mere formality match held at the Emirates. There were five times that David Raya left his goal intact, a record surpassed only by the six of Guglielmo Vicario, Tottenham’s Italian goalkeeper who saw how PSG spoiled his numbers with the five goals he scored against him at the Parc des Princes.
The Premier overwhelms the rest
Third classified at the end of the previous league phase, Arsenal was one of the three teams that managed to repeat within the ‘top 8’ along with Liverpool, which went from first place in the 2024-25 campaign to third in the current one, and Barça, which dropped from second to fifth. ‘Gunners’ and ‘Reds’ have taken the lead when it comes to showing the formidable muscle of the Premier League, which has accredited five of its six representatives among the eight best and has also sneaked into the play-offs against Newcastle. No other competition has directly inserted more than one candidate into the round of 16, with Bayern, Barça and Sporting de Portugal being the only teams that have been able to make room for themselves in the midst of British hegemony.
Thus, Spain, which also started with five candidates for the throne, has been left with only three tricks, after losing Villarreal and Athletic along the way, which will force its fans to be very attentive to what happens this Friday in Nyon. Barça will follow the draw as a privileged observer from a distance, but with a potentially mined field in the round of 16, where PSG could fall in love, which already demonstrated last year its ability to jump from purgatory to heaven. Later, Tottenham or Liverpool could appear on their horizon, with a hypothetical classic against Real Madrid relegated to the semifinals, but that is a story too distant to talk about now.
From electric chair to electric chair
Mainly because Real Madrid, once again, will have to examine itself as the repeater that it is. Guardiola is not threatening this time in the play-offs but Mourinho is, the same one who sent the whites to a rematch on Wednesday in which they can also face Bodo/Glimt. If they overcome it, in the round of 16 Pep could challenge them for the sixth consecutive season and seventh in the last eight. Arsenal or Bayern emerge as eventual bogeymen in the quarterfinals of Arbeloa’s team, as covered in threats as Atlético.
Simeone’s men will have a duel in the playoff with Bruges or Galatasaray. If they overcome the Belgians or Turks, the red and whites will walk on quicksand in the round of 16 against Liverpool or Tottenham and, if they emerge unscathed, equally or more poisonous rivals would await them in the quarterfinals, with Barça, Chelsea and PSG at the helm. Thus, from electric chair to electric chair they would have to jump, like everyone else, to earn heaven in Budapest.
