The league phase of the revamped Champions League concluded on Wednesday night, with lots to play for as Liverpool finished top while Young Boys finished bottom.
3Sports takes a look at five major talking points from matchday 8.
Goals galore
For the first time ever, all 18 Champions League games took place on the same day and time. And one thing which was surely guaranteed was goals.
At halftime, 33 goals were scored across the various games, adding to the thrill of the occasion.
Fans were served a treat between games as the goals poured in. 64 goals were scored at full-time, with Lille-Feyenoord the highest-scoring game on the night.
Seven goals were produced in Lille’s clash, with the home side scoring six while Feyenoord bagged a goal.
Aston Villa Celtic produced six goals, while Paris Saint Germain against Stuttgart had five.
The success of the league phase will be well received by UEFA after the shift from the normal group stage format to a league phase.
The format may have been altered but the excitement remained unrivalled.
Hat-trick heroes bask in occasion
Big moments, like Wednesday, define the Champions League. Europe’s elite competition was made for players to defy odds, grab games by the teeth, and leave their mark.
The Champions League was the cynosure of all eyes on Wednesday and so were Ousmane Dembele, Morgan Rogers and Lautaro Martinez.
The trio bagged hat-tricks for their respective clubs en route to victory. Coincidentally, the hat-tricks of the aforementioned players were their first in the Champions League.
Obviously, their hat-tricks carried relevance beyond the three points: At 22, Morgan Rogers became the second youngest English player to score a hat trick in the competition behind Wayne Rooney, while Lautaro Martinez became Inter Milan’s all-time top scorer in the competition.
For Ousmane Dembele, it marked his first senior hat-trick since 2016.
League phase paves way for mouthwatering knockout round
It’s now time for the business end of the competition after the shenanigans of the league phase.
Eight teams have automatically advanced to the knockout round of the Champions League and will play no part in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, teams who finished from 9th place to 24th will be involved in a two-legged playoff tie in February, with losers joining the other teams who exited the competition after finishing less than 24th.
The path to Munich’s final is, however, taking shape, with all eyes fixated on Real Madrid, who could potentially face Manchester City in Friday’s draw.
Liverpool and Barcelona, who finished first and second respectively, cannot square off until the final of the competition.
Two horse title race
It’ll be utterly unfair to judge Liverpool and Barcelona based on Wednesday night’s display.
In hindsight, there was nothing to really play for. Regardless of their respective results, a top-eight finish was guaranteed.
A sense of pride was all that was left to fight for.
Liverpool fielded a pretty much second-fiddle team away at PSV, paying the penalty in return as their 100% win record in the tournament was curtailed after a 3-2 loss.
Barcelona, on the other hand, played out a 2-2 stalemate with Atalanta. A win for Barcelona would have taken them level on points with Liverpool.
But the Catalans have conceded more than Arne Slot’s side and thus would have been unable to topple them.
These two clubs have matched each other stride for stride throughout the tournament.
Although they are yet to face off, Barcelona and Liverpool are head and shoulders above the rest.
The odds are stacked in the favour of one of the two to win the trophy.
Defences on top
Inter Milan have truly epitomized what it means to defend “with your lives.”
After 8 games, Inter conceded the lowest number of goals in the league phase (1), with Arsenal (3) and Liverpool (5) all maintaining strong backlines.
To travel the mile to the final, stupendous performances are required each and every week in defence and so many clubs have so far than that.
Liverpool have so far been effective at both ends of the field, scoring 17 and conceding five.
The Champions League knockout draw is expected to take place on January 31.
The post Five key takeaways as first-ever Champions League league phase concludes first appeared on 3News.
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