The Champions League Group Stage has finally ended, leaving 16 teams alive, and several others with a sour taste in their mouth. Not sour is the taste in Cristiano Ronaldo’s mouth, after being elevated to the mountaintop of world soccer once again.
The world’s most important competition and the world’s most important award, in this midweek edition of 90 Minutes’ Top Five.
1. Gimme five
Follow a record with another record. That’s what Cristiano Ronaldo does these days.
Just a day removed from becoming the first player in Champions League history to score in every match of Group Stage, the Portuguese star was awarded the 2017 Ballon d’Or, tying Lionel Messi for most awards all-time with five. Ronaldo and Messi have always been neck-and-neck when it comes to these recognitions. This year, however, the final verdict was a surprise to mostly no one. Ronaldo was the top scorer for a Real Madrid side that won the UEFA Champions League and La Liga, netting 42 goals in all competitions during the 2016-17, in addition to leading Portugal to a World Cup berth with 15 goals during qualifying. He also topped the Champions League scoring charts with 15, had the most goals for club and country in 2017 with 32, became the top scorer across the top five European leagues of all time with 367, was the first to reach 100 goals in European competition and in the Champions League, became the only player to score in three Champions League finals, the player to be the top scorer in more Champions League seasons, among others.
In year full of records set by Ronaldo, it was only fitting he tied a new mark by winning another one of soccer’s top individual prize.
2. England rule Europe
Five years have passed since and English team made a Champions League final. Come 2018, the odds of this trend finally breaking are very good.
In a season in which the tournament had the most number of Premier League teams ever, English soccer came out the biggest winner of the group stage by qualifying all five teams to the Round of 16, a feat never done before in Europe’s premiere competition. But not only will the entire English contingent feature come January, four of the five (Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur) topped their groups, averaging 14.5 points collectively, while Chelsea finished second in Group C to Roma on head-to-head results. The Premier League’s claim as the top league in the world had always been refuted by the argument of lacking success in the Champions League at a time when Spanish teams have ruled both European competitions.
2018 will offer a tremendous chance for the Premier League to pound the table and solidify its case as best league in the world with a takeover of the world’s top club competition.
3. Surprise, surprise
The cream always rises to the top in tournaments like the Champions League, but a few shockers -positive and negative- are always included in the menu.
Let’s start with the most glaring surprises in this edition of the tournament. Atletico Madrid and Monaco were two of the agitators in last year’s Champions League, reaching the semifinal before succumbing to a couple of teams like Real Madrid and Juventus. This season, the story couldn’t have been more different, especially for Leonardo Jardim’s side. Monaco’s struggles this season have been well documented, but with a team still featuring some of the best young talent and seasoned veterans, obtaining two points in six matches, finishing in last place, even missing out on the Europa League, all in a group without a top contender, is simply astonishing. Same can be said for Atletico, who did face a difficult group along Chelsea and Roma, but whose campaign came undone by drawing both matches to Champions League rookies Qarabag. In addition, and not to pile on an already disastrous season, Borussia Dortmund also disappointed mightily, finishing in third place of Group H tied in points with last-place APOEL. There isn’t much more to say about this Dortmund team, whose season has already burst into flames.
On the positive end, it’s worth highlighting the campaigns of Basel and Besiktas, the latter of which topped Group G’s -Monaco’s group- undefeated and showing signs of being a team to be reckoned with.
4. End of an era
In the end, a World Cup elimination was enough to end an 11-year presidency.
Now-former president of the United States Soccer Federation Sunil Gulati will end a tenure that began in 2006 by choosing not to run for reelection in the upcoming USSF elections this coming February. Given the climate created by the disastrous elimination by the US men’s national team from the 2018 World Cup, Gulati stepping aside was necessary to begin a renovation process the goes well beyond just what happened in Trinidad and Tobago. Gulati, a business man by nature, made costly decisions on the competition side -mainly the hiring and keeping of Jurgen Klinsmann as manager of the men’s team despite the lack of resutls- that eventually led to that night in Trinidad. But it wouldn’t be fair to let the negative completely erase the positives. The growth of the US women’s team is undeniable under Gulati’s presidency, with a World Cup victory in 2015 and two gold medals won during that time. Also, the economic growth of the USSF is worth noting, although he did benefit from the work of USSF CEO Dan Flynn on that end.
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The USSF will be under new management in just couple months, but Gulati will not be completely out of the picture, as he is still part of the 2026 World Cup bid, and has gained quite the amount of influence among the FIFA elites.
A five-hour long meeting of the all-powerful FIFA Council in Bahrain, chaired by president Gianni Infantino, has decided to replace German Hans-Joachim Eckert with Vasilios Skuris of Greece. / AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
5. Mbappe’s consolation
PSG may have dropped its second straight match after being steamrolled by Bayern Munich, but the French giants would not go down quietly, creating this subtle yet exquisite piece of technique between Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe that marks the Goal of Midweek.