Five English teams in the top eight… and the sixth (Newcastle) on the verge of entering the round of 16 directly. The Champions League reaches the knockout phase with dominance of the Premier League and some illustrious fallen players such as Naples, Eindhoven or Olympique de Marseille, who were eliminated by the Benfica goalkeeper’s final goal against Real Madrid. Not even the best scriptwriter would have written a story with so much suspense, especially if one considers that Lisbon and Madrid have a 50% chance of meeting each other in the playoff that comes in February.
Arsenal completed a total of eight victories (3-2 against Kairat), Liverpool finished third after massacring (6-0) Qarabag, which had the potential to make the defeat harmless, Tottenham did not fail against the already eliminated Eintracht (0-2), Manchester City easily got rid of Galatasaray (2-0) and Chelsea became strong at the expense of Naples’ misfortune. The champion of the Italian league leaves Europe without even reaching the playoff, which opens the door for eight more teams to continue in the competition. The surprises did not end there. Paris Saint-Germain and Inter, last year’s finalists, are left out of the top eight. The former tied at the Parc des Princes with Newcastle in a match that would have rewarded the winner with a place in the second round. They will have to fight it in the playoff because the replacement of English teams in the round of 16 barely left room for Bayern, winners in Eindhoven (1-2), Barcelona and Sporting.
Of all the twists and turns that are sought in football, UEFA found one tailored to the fans with the final day of the Champions League qualifying round, a passage that until two years ago was full of procedures and that with the new format has become an exciting carousel. The wise men of what they call the football industry assure that the business is in time dispersion, but in the maximum club competition they have reinvented the wheel with a day of 18 games in which everyone had something at stake. And as soon as the ball got rolling it was a non-stop of events.
In the first ten minutes the first protagonists emerged. Havertz, starter after 357 bitter days, was seen in Arsenal with a goal pass to Gyokeres, but Calafiori committed a penalty that left everything as it had started. Dembelé missed a penalty in Paris against Newcastle and Vitinha made amends with a great goal, Bruges scored two goals and began to turn the night into an ordeal for Olympique de Marseille and in Manchester the inevitable Haaland punished Galatasaray. Nothing stopped until the end with chained hits of script.
The night was frenetic because it had continuous changes in the standings and intricate calculations that not only had to do with points but also with goal differences. In the end there were, obviously, winners, losers and, above all, a troop of teams involved in the fight to enter the last positions of the top-24 and avoid closing the curtain on Europe. In the end everything ended up in two places that four teams had to share. They were taken, epic included, by Bodo/Glimt and Benfica. Left out are the distraught Marseille that fell (3-0) in Bruges or the heroic Paphos, coached by Albert Celades after the departure of Juan Carlos Carcedo, who was missing two goals against Slavia (4-1). Union St. Gilloise, Eindhoven, Athletic, Naples and Copenhagen are also not included. It was not enough for them to add nine points in eight games. Ajax, Eintracht, Slavia, Villarreal and Kairat were further behind.
