CL Round-Up

For a few years now, it’s felt like the UEFA Champions League has had a sense of dull repetition to it. The continual same-old-faces of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus was producing stale contests. Dull, low-scoring fares in the knockout rounds meant that, if you wanted to find entertaining no-holds-barred football, the UEFA Europa League posed a better bet. It had more shocks, better scorelines and more ambitious tactical appeal for a lot of neutral viewers.

Thankfully, the 2017-18 season has been a shot in the arm for a flagging tournament. While Real Madrid are returning to their fourth final in five years, and Bayern Munich reached the semi-finals, their opponents are starkly different.

For example, the UEFA Champions League semi-finals consisted of a Spanish, English, Italian and German team. The fact that an unfancied Liverpool side have shot their way to the Final is one thing; the tremendous performance of Roma to go so far is incredible. It added a sense of feel-good to the story, but that’s only alongside a wonderful penchant for comebacks.

For every blowout, such as the 5-0 aggregate thrashing of FC Porto by Liverpool, we’ve had incredible comebacks. King of these comebacks, though, is Roma. They fought hard to get out of a tight group involving Chelsea and Atletico Madrid. They then came back from 4-1 down to put out FC Barcelona and reach the semi-finals, bowing out 7-6 to Liverpool in a contest that will live in the memory for a lifetime.

Alongside that insane comeback has been the likes of Sevilla overcoming Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain falling flat after a tremendous summer spending regime and the incredible near-comeback of Juventus against Real Madrid. From the amazing Cristiano Ronaldo bicycle kick to the stunning late penalty, it’s a symbolic tie.

A Tournament Renewed?

The fact we have a gun-slinging finalist with rich European heritage coming up against true European royalty is a good thing. The fact that we’ve also seen teams like Barcelona fall out of the tournament so early is also a positive; for once, it’s felt like a level playing field.

The Roma result against Barcelona, and the near-comeback of Juventus, shows that there’s more depth to the European game than in recent years. The fact that teams like Tottenham Hotspur and Roma felt like they could legitimately win the tournament is a major boon.

The season began with yet more people waiting for their drama to unfold in the Europa League. While the semi-finals ended 2-1 and 3-2 respectively, the Champions League produced a much more exciting experience overall.

Comebacks, thrashings, drama, late penalties and incredible shocks; this is a tournament that has had it all. For the first time in a long time, discussion of the Champions League undergoing extensive reform has died off. What was once seen as a must-have for the tournament is now seen as a needless transformation. Who could have called such universal enjoyment even in the early stages of the 2017-18 group stages?

If it continues like this in the years to come, it can only be a good thing.