3 clubs in Europe that are punching above their weight this season

With the start of each season, every fan hopes that it’s going to be the year that their club shines. Fans of big clubs dream of winning the league while the fans of newly promoted and mid-table clubs hope of keeping their place in the league and produce some major upsets.

Halfway through the season across all the leagues, we have seen clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich failed to live up to their expectations; Not only against clubs close to their caliber but also against clubs whose transfer budgets are less than their best player’s annual salary.

Along with the suffering of these big clubs, we have had the delight to watch lower-rated clubs play some beautiful football and punch above their weight.

Let’s look at some of those clubs across all the top five European Leagues.

1. Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bundesliga, Position: 3rd

Thorgan Hazard has been in excellent form this season

After finishing 9th in the 2017/18 season of the Bundesliga, not many would have expected this from Borussia Mönchengladbach. They finished a whopping 37 points behind runaway league winners Bayern Munich with only 47 points last season. However, they are already on 33 points at the halfway stage this year and only three points behind the champions.

Thorgan Hazard has been a revelation for them this term, contributing in 19 goals with nine goals and six assists in the Bundesliga alone. On the back of this young Belgian’s form, Borussia Mönchengladbach upset the mighty Bayern away from home, declaring that they’re not going to be a push-over team this term.

Even though it is too early in the season to tell if they are going to give Bayern and Dortmund a run for their money, they’ve still got the other teams talking and thinking on how to beat them.

2. Wolverhampton, English Premier League, Position: 9th

Wolverhampton have traveled to London on five occasions this season and have not lost a single game. The most recent result being the drubbing of Tottenham at Wembley where they came out with a scoreline of 1-3 giving Mauricio Pochettino his first defeat against a newly promoted club.

Apart from embarrassing Tottenham, they’ve also defeated Chelsea. The Wolves soared through even when they met Manchester United, Arsenal and the ruthless army of Pep Guardiola’s men, taking home a point from each of those games. So much so that they even beat Liverpool 2-1 in the FA Cup recently.

With the influence of their super agent Jorge Mendes and the tactical nous of Nuno Espirito Sancho, Wolverhampton have become a team capable of fighting for a Europa League spot. Only time will tell if these are just good times for the Wolves or if they are the real deal.

3. Lille OSC, Ligue 1, Position: 2nd

With Ligue 1 having a knack of producing underdogs every season, they have produced yet another one this time around in the form of Lille OSC. Lille won 10 games from a total of 19 games this season. Last season, they managed only to win only 10 games.

The French club is sitting at 2nd position in the table, having played an extra game over Lyon. They are riding on the back of Nicolas Pepe’s scintillating form. The French forward has scored 12 goals and provided five assists this season. Christophe Galtier is bringing out the best from the team that was considered as relegation survivors from last season.

With PSG looking set to add another Ligue 1 title to their trophy cabinet, Lille OSC will hope to have a second half similar to the first half of the season and hope to end the season on a high with a spot amongst the big boys of Europe.

Edited by deebak mohan