5 reasons why 2018 was an amazing year for world football

France's World Cup win was just one highlight in 2018
France's World Cup win was just one highlight in 2018

We’re just days away from the end of 2018 now, and from a football standpoint, it’s been a hell of a year. From the hectic tail end of 2017-18 to the red-hot beginning of 2018-19 – with the World Cup and yet another wild transfer window in between – it feels like this year has had everything when it comes to the ‘beautiful game’.

Whether 2019 will be as good a year as 2018 is a major question mark going forward. But most football fans would probably agree that this has been an amazing year for world football – and here are 5 reasons why.

#1: The knockout stages of the Champions League were tremendous

Gareth Bale's spectacular goal in the final was just one of the great moments in the Champions League
Gareth Bale's spectacular goal in the final was just one of the great moments in the Champions League

The UEFA Champions League is definitely football’s biggest club competition, and every year we get some massive ties thrown up between some of Europe’s most powerful clubs. And while sometimes those ties don’t live up to the hype – the teams just don’t go for it, and we get some damp squibs - that wasn’t the case in 2018.

The round of 16 was crazy enough – a total of 47 goals were scored across the 16 games - and yet the only truly one-sided ties came between Bayern Munich and Besiktas (8-1 to Bayern), Liverpool and Porto (5-0 to Liverpool) and Manchester City and Basel (5-2 to City). Elsewhere, we saw Real Madrid edge Paris St. Germain in a battle of giants, while a tactical switch allowed Juventus to squeeze past Tottenham.

The quarter-finals then upped the ante; Roma somehow overcame a 4-1 first leg loss to Barcelona to defeat the Spanish giants 3-0 in the return game – sneaking through on the away goals rule - in one of the season’s biggest upsets. The other big result came in the all-English tie – Liverpool stunned everyone by destroying Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate.

We got plenty of goals too – 24 across the 8 games.

In the end, it came down to Liverpool – who beat Roma 7-6 on aggregate in the semis – and holders Real Madrid, who overcame Bayern Munich. And it was Los Blancos who ended up winning their 13th Champions League – and their 3rd in a row – after a dramatic final that saw one of the greatest goals in Champions League history by Gareth Bale – and another two for Madrid caused by major errors from Liverpool keeper Loris Karius.

Basically, the knockout stages of the Champions League delivered like few other tournaments in 2018 – and made for an incredible spectacle.

#2: The World Cup was surprisingly awesome

The World Cup saw some classic moments - including England's penalty shootout win over Colombia
The World Cup saw some classic moments - including England's penalty shootout win over Colombia

There was a lot of trepidation when it came to this summer’s World Cup in Russia. Nobody was really sure what to expect from the hosts due to the amount of controversy surrounding the way in which they were able to secure the tournament. And after a disappointing Euro 2016 tournament, it felt like the fans weren’t all that into international football.

That all changed pretty much from the opening match of Russia 2018, where the hosts destroyed Saudi Arabia 5-0. From that point on, we were taken on a tour de force for the next month, getting treated to probably the best World Cup since France 1998 two decades prior.

We saw some classic games – Spain’s 3-3 draw with Portugal, Argentina’s dramatic victory over Nigeria, and an incredible 2-1 victory for Germany over Sweden which somehow couldn’t save the holders from being eliminated at the final hurdle.

And that was just the group stage. Things just kept on rolling into the knockout stages.

It felt like every game was somehow memorable, from England winning their first penalty shoot-out in 22 years to eliminate Colombia, to Belgium’s insane comeback to defeat Japan, and the Kylian Mbappe-fuelled 4-3 France victory over Argentina. Then there was Russia’s penalty shoot-out win over Spain – and subsequent shoot-out loss to Croatia, and the elimination of favourites Brazil by Belgium.

All the while, the sun shone, the fans in Russia had the time of their lives, and there wasn’t a hint of the problems that some observers suggested would happen in terms of political issues and hooliganism. When France won the tournament by beating Croatia on July 14th, nobody really wanted the World Cup to end.

It’ll go down in history as one of the best World Cups ever – and nobody expected that, did they?

#3: The summer transfer window was as crazy as ever

Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Juventus was the summer's biggest transfer
Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Juventus was the summer's biggest transfer

2017 saw some crazy money being thrown around during the transfer window. Paris St. Germain smashed the world transfer fee record by signing Neymar for nearly £200m, completely eclipsing 2016’s £89m for Paul Pogba, and Barcelona responded by signing Ousmane Dembele for around £100m. Nobody really thought that 2018 could push things any further.

Sure, Barca also signed Philppe Coutinho from Liverpool for around £106m in January, but that was more a continuation of the Neymar saga from the summer. The summer transfer window couldn’t possibly be as wild this year, right?

And yet it totally was. The most expensive move saw Kylian Mbappe officially move to PSG from Monaco for a fee of around £158m.

Now that may have been expected given he’d already spent a season on loan there. What wasn’t expected, however, was that the world record fee for a goalkeeper would be broken twice – firstly by Liverpool, who paid somewhere around £60m for Roma’s Alisson Becker, and then less than a month later by Chelsea, who parted with a crazy £71m for Athletic Bilbao’s Kepa Arrizabalaga.

This was after Liverpool had already broken the record fee for a defender by spending £75m on Virgil Van Dijk in January, of course.

Elsewhere we saw a huge shocker as the world’s best player, Cristiano Ronaldo, finally moved from Real Madrid after 9 years with the Spanish giants. Many fans expected CR7 to end his career at the Bernabeu, and so they were stunned when he made a move to Juventus largely out of nowhere for a huge fee of £88.5m – giving Madrid a slight profit in the process.

In the end, of the 50 most expensive transfers in football history, 14 of them took place in 2018. Considering people thought the transfer market had peaked in 2017, that’s pretty crazy.

Only time will tell whether 2019 can top this again, but there’s no denying that 2018 was a memorable year for transfers.

#4: The Nations League kept the international game hugely relevant

The resurgence of the Netherlands was a highlight of the UEFA Nations League
The resurgence of the Netherlands was a highlight of the UEFA Nations League

After such an exciting World Cup in the summer, the fear for international football was that once the club season began again, it would simply overshadow the international game as it usually does, with attendance and fan interest dropping for a series of low-level qualifiers and meaningless friendly matches. But in Europe at least, 2018 was different, as the advent of UEFA’s new Nations League competition meant the World Cup momentum continued into the autumn.

The inaugural edition of the competition saw Europe’s best go head-to-head in competitive matches rather than in friendly fixtures, with a mini-tournament in the summer of 2019 at stake. We saw sides like England and the Netherlands become resurgent – beating Spain, Croatia, France and Germany in titanic results – and some classic games like Switzerland’s stunning 5-2 victory over Belgium.

Even the lower-level teams enjoyed the competition, as the format meant they were faced with one another in competitive matches for the first time, rather than being crushed by Europe’s giants. This meant that we saw some historic results, including the first ever international victory for Gibraltar, who defeated Armenia 0-1.

With promotion and relegation at stake, all of Europe’s sides came out looking to win, and fans got into the games much more than they would’ve done for friendly fixtures.

At first the Nations League felt like a big risk on the behalf of UEFA due to the slightly convoluted format. But in the end it proved to be a huge hit – and was another reason why 2018 was so fantastic for football.

#5: The Premier League is hotter than ever

Man City ran away with the Premier League in 2017/18, but 2018/19 is looking more exciting than ever
Man City ran away with the Premier League in 2017/18, but 2018/19 is looking more exciting than ever

2017-18 was a fun season in the Premier League, but overall it had one issue – it was simply too easy for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side to come out on top. In the end, City won the league with a record 100 points, scored a remarkable 106 goals and only losing two games all season. But if people were expecting them to run away with 2018-19, it looks like they’re wrong.

The current season of the Premier League is more exciting than ever, and what’s more, the league table is far tighter too.

December 18th 2017’s league table saw Manchester City at the top with 52 points – a staggering 11 points clear of 2nd place Manchester United, and 19 clear of 5th place Arsenal. The contrast right now is amazing; Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool currently lead the race with 45 points, City are one behind, but 3rd place Tottenham are only 6 points off the top themselves.

And Arsenal, who currently sit in 5th, are 11 points off the summit – the same gap that had opened between 1st and 2nd place this time last year!

Essentially, it feels like within the top 5 at least, anyone can beat anyone. We’ve seen Chelsea overcome Manchester City, Tottenham defeat Chelsea, and Arsenal defeat Tottenham. All 5 teams are playing some of the best football ever seen in Premier League history, with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Harry Kane and Eden Hazard still on fire.

With sides like Wolves, Everton and West Ham also on excellent runs and looking to break into the chasing pack – or at least dent the pride of the top 5 – England’s top division has been better than ever in 2018. And it looks like the best might still be to come.

Quick Links

Edited by Musab Abid