It’s been an odd soccer season in Europe, and not just because it was interrupted by a World Cup in November and December. The Champions League has given us dollops of parity: take Barcelona and Atletico Madrid bombing out in the group stage while Club Brugge advanced, Napoli looking like the best team in Europe for months (and Serie A placing three teams in the quarterfinals and two in the semis like it’s 2003 all over again or something), last year’s finalist Liverpool failing quickly and quietly, 2020 finalists Bayern and PSG basically doing the same, and so on. Meanwhile, Bayern is threatening to end its 10-year Bundesliga title streak and Arsenal has spent most of the season atop the Premier League table like it’s 2004 all over again or something.
As tends to be the case, though, order begins to shine through chaos toward the end of the season. The best team in Europe (Manchester City) and the tournament’s most frequent winner (Real Madrid) remain in the hunt for the Champions League crown, and City has solid odds of winning England’s first treble (the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League titles) since 1999. PSG is going to win Ligue 1 yet again, Bayern could still win the Bundesliga, and Barcelona has just about polished off its first LaLiga title since 2019.
While we wait to see how much competitive balance the soccer gods elect to share with us, we’re also awash in post-mortems. A number of the world’s more successful and/or monied clubs are already out of the Champions League running, and some have suffered dour league form as well. The present tense still has plenty of questions to answer, but let’s look into the future a bit, as well.
For the 12 teams thus far eliminated from the Champions League knockout rounds, what questions await as they attempt to prepare for greater success moving forward?
Last season: Third place (74 points, +43 goal differential), eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals This season: 11th place (on pace for 46 points and -6 goal differential), eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals
