True supreme rule
Francisco Gento’s record six European Cup wins was one of those records that seemed indisputable, belonging to the scrapbook era of football. And yet Dani Carvajal, scorer of Real Madrid’s first goal in the final, and Luka Modrić equaled the legendary winger’s total with Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 on Saturday. Toni Kroos, in his last game for the club, having won five with Real to add to his Champions League title in 2013 with Bayern Munich, joined them.
Real Madrid dominates again, and if there is a claim that a poor and weak Champions League will be won by the Spanish club as a fait accompli, this ignores the club’s infrastructure. Carlo Ancelotti may be a cool figure, but he leads a highly technocratic setup, with his son Davide just one of the many powers behind the throne.
Juni Calafat is the chief scout which brought Rodrygo, Vinícius Júnior, Eduardo Camavinga, Federico Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Jude Bellingham. This talent is subsequently ingrained in the winning mentality that is an indelible part of the club’s makeup. Players like Carvajal, hardly the best football player in the world, and Nacho, the ever-reliable utility defender, add backbone and authority in the dressing room. The importance of such players in their mold has been missed by several clubs aspiring to the heights of Madrid.
Stars of the season
If Vinícius continued his inexorable rise towards the Ballon d’Or, this season’s Champions League stars represent a strange mix of newer names and reliable perennials. Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé finished as joint top scorers. At Porto, Pepe, at 41, showed off all his old tricks and became the competition’s oldest goalscorer, while Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin excelled for Real Madrid before being replaced by Thibaut Courtois at Wembley. Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel also had an excellent campaign.
For the champions, Kroos signed in style, showing that players like Bellingham have a lot to emulate in midfield. To find some more unlikely heroes, Joselu’s two goals in the semi-final against Bayern maintained Stoke City’s iron grip on the competition, while Niclas Füllkrug’s displays reminded us that great strikers still have their place in modern football. . Marcel Sabitzer, rejected by Bayern and Manchester United, had an excellent season in Dortmund’s midfield.
Mats Hummels rolled back the years, while his Dortmund counterpart Julian Ryerson excelled as an attacking full-back, with Julian Brandt also displaying his attacking prowess. If Manchester City disappointed, Phil Foden took further steps to move away from Kevin De Bruyne’s shadow with five goals and three assists. And of those who left early, Antoine Griezmann appeared in the group stage wearing the Atlético shirt.
Goodbye group stages as we knew them
Goodbye, then, to Tuesday and Wednesday nights, where the 32 competing clubs aim to reach the round of 16 with around 10 points. Goodbye also to the glitzy group stage draw held with the great and the good sitting in a stuffy room while master of ceremonies Giorgio Marchetti takes the floor in Pedro Pinto’s place. Giorgio’s lounge act will have to wait until the draw for the qualifiers. All hail the Swiss Systemwhere algorithmic vagaries mean a supercomputer must pull the accessories out of its hat in the style of a lottery machine.
Goodbye hot balls, hello Dominion-type conspiracy theories about plots against your club. And all after a season in which the group stage actually produced some decent matches and bloodied the noses of Manchester United, Milan and Newcastle, who exited the competition. Homeless club Shakhtar Donetsk almost exited a group that included Barcelona and Porto, defeating Barcelona on a thrilling night in Hamburg.
Au revoir, PSG
With Mbappé heading to Real Madridalong with Brazil’s next star, Endrick, perhaps a new Galactic era will begin. It also marks the end of PSG’s vainglorious attempt to replicate Real Madrid’s constellation of Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham from the early 2000s, by pairing Neymar and Lionel Messi with Mbappé.
Without the first two, and largely unlamented, Mbappé’s last dance saw PSG stage a worthy attempt at finally win the Champions League. Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé put Barcelona to the sword in the quarter-finals, and Dortmund looked a good semi, only for the big man to mess up his lines in the second leg. There was also bad luck: Warren Zaïre-Emery, Nuno Mendes, Mbappé and Vitinha each hit the woodwork. There was a terrible ending and misfortune, with Gonçalo Ramos perhaps being most to blame.
Mbappé is now heading to Madrid to try to win the trophy he most covets. But PSG, with players like Zaire-Emery, Vitinha and Lucas Beraldo, and under the skillful management of Luis EnriqueNow you can try to build a different team, one that no longer depends on one star system.
German football on the rise
If players like Karim Adeyemi and Füllkrug had been more adept at defending the goal at Wembley, German football could have ended a fabulous Bundesliga season in the best possible style. It ended with Bayer Leverkusen – undefeated champion – and Dortmund losing in their respective European finals but German football asserted itself ahead host Euro 2024.
If Bayern Munich disappointed internally, they came very close to denying Real Madrid a goal in the semi-finals; a premature offside flag from Polish referee Tomasz Listkiewicz killed the move that should have ended with Matthijs de Ligt scoring an equalizer at the Bernabéu. German football was lately seen as a talent factory for coaches and players, but its clubs have shown that they should not be underestimated. Dortmund were the best team in the Wembley final, until Real Madrid stood out.
Premier League supremacy takes a blow
Our League, This League, the EPL, whatever you want to call it, took a beating in this season’s Champions League. Having won two of the last three, and with Manchester City in its imperial phase, the expectation was that the Wembley final would host one, if not two Premier League clubs.
Then came the terrible performances of Newcastle and Manchester United – both eliminated completely from Europe. Erik ten Hag’s team were involved in a series of games in which they suffered barely credible comebacks from FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray, twice. Arsenal boasted self-confidence in England and Europe until the revival of your Bayern Munich hoodoo.
It’s city? Real Madrid showed that when it comes to the Champions League, one empire rules the rest – and the importance of taking risks when they really matter. Revenge was served cold and the failure against Real Madrid was another one of those occasions in which Pep Guardiola abandoned simplicity for an advanced tactical plan. Here were two legs for Erling Haaland to regret. The result: Premier League clubs eliminated in the quarter-finals. Before that, there was a widespread belief that only Liverpool would be able to stop City from defending their title. Even then, they would just have to win the Europa League, right?
Still, it could be worse. Or better? Italy will have six teams in the Champions League next season due to efficient performance in the three European competitions, but only named two teams in the round of 16.
