The Champions League group stages are over

What a Champions League group stage it was. There were twists and turns in many groups and was exciting throughout the whole group stage. A few big teams missed out on the knockout round, however, most of the European giants have made it through. Group B and C were particularly exciting especially heading into this final round.

Group B had Barcelona, Intern, Tottenham and PSV. This was going to be a tough group for anyone to get out of. Barcelona were expected to top the group; however, second place was up for grabs. Coming into the final round Tottenham and Inter were level on points but Tottenham had the better head to head advantage. This means Tottenham only had to match Inter’s score and they would go through. Tottenham were away at Barcelona, whereas Inter were playing at home to PSV. These were both huge games for Tottenham and Inter as they knew a place in the last 16 was at stake. The Tottenham game was tense, and Barcelona got an early goal in the 7th Minute. However, news broke that PSV had scored at the San Siro and Tottenham were going through. However, things changed in the second half because Inter equalized in the 73rd minute through Icardi. This made things even more tense for the Spurs team, however, much to the delight of Pochettino and the whole team, Lucas scored and equalizer in the 85th Minute. Both games ended 1-1 and Tottenham went through in second place.

Group C was even more tense because there were three teams: Napoli, PSG, And Liverpool, who could all go through as group winners. Liverpool hosted Napoli, and PSG were away at Red Star. Liverpool needed to win 1-0 or by two goals in order to go through. PSG knew that any win for them would see them go through but wanted Liverpool to win so that they could finish group winners. PSG won their game comfortably 1-4, however, the Liverpool game was much tenser. Salah scored in the first half, however they knew that one goal from Napoli would mean they would need to score two more. Liverpool kept attacking and tried to find another goal and missed various golden opportunities. Napoli were limited to a few chances due to Liverpool’s defense, however, in the 92nd Minute the ball fell kindly to Milik who was one on one with Allisson, but he produced a huge save to keep the score at 1-0 and progress to the knockout round.

The other teams to go through were:

Group A
Winners: Dortmund Runner up: Atletico Madrid
Group B
Winners: Barcelona Runner up: Tottenham
Group C
Winners: PSG Runner up: Liverpool
Group D
Winners: Porto Runner up: Schalke
Group E
Winners: Bayern Munich Runner up: Ajax
Group F
Winners: Manchester City Runner up: Lyon
Group G
Winners: Real Madrid Runner up: Roma
Group H
Winners: Juventus Runner up: Manchester United

The round of 16 draw will take place on Monday the 17th December. Will be interesting to see which teams get put together, and there will surely be some mouthwatering ties.