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The group stage of the 2017/18 Champions League is almost over already – where did that time go? With just one game remaining for all of the teams, most of the pieces have been set for the knockout stages to begin, although a handful of groups are yet to be decided.
Some of the usual suspects have done just as well as you’d expect, while a handful of others have struggled a little more. Meanwhile, some sides have performed above and beyond expectations – as Monaco did last season – and look to be freshening up the competition quite heavily. Here are five teams who have been pleasant surprises in this year’s UEFA Champions League....so far, of course.
#1 Tottenham Hotspur
This one was probably obvious. Despite their massive improvements since the arrival in 2014 of Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham had still found it hard going in Europe. Last season’s Champions League experience, in particular, was a disaster for them, as they crashed out in the group stages following losses to Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen. And when this season’s draw was made – pitting them against reigning champions Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia – it looked like trouble.
Instead, Spurs have simply breezed through the group without a care in the world. They hammered APOEL as was expected, but have also beaten Dortmund home and away and also managed to beat Real over their two meetings, drawing 1-1 in the Bernabeu before defeating them 3-1 at Wembley.
Talk about Real having a bad season thus far all you like, but they’re still the defending champions and in Cristiano Ronaldo, they still have the best player in the world. And yet they were outclassed by Spurs, particularly in the second tie.
The likes of Harry Kane and Dele Alli remain key players and have been on fire – Kane scoring 6 goals thus far – while players such as Harry Winks and Heung-Min Son have also developed into stars under Pochettino and have performed above and beyond their perceived abilities.
Pochettino’s two major summer signings, defenders Davinson Sanchez and Serge Aurier, have also added even more steel to Tottenham’s already formidable spine. Contenders for the Champions League? After their group stage showing you’d have to say so.
#2 Paris St. Germain
This one might sound strange given PSG were expected to be contenders for the Champions League from the off following their insane levels of spending on Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in the summer. But let’s be frank – I don’t think anyone expected them to be quite this good.
Previous tournaments have seen PSG swamp the lower-level sides before coming unstuck against the better ones, and this season put them into a group with perennial contenders Bayern Munich – a tough test early on.
Simply put though, PSG have risen to that challenge and simply smashed their way through it like it was nothing. They’ve scored an incredible 24 goals thus far in the group stage – far more than any other side – and to prove they’re defensively tough too they’ve only let in one goal.
That came last night against Celtic and while lesser sides might’ve panicked after conceding in the first minute, PSG simply shrugged it off like a flesh wound and then did what they do – dismantling the Scottish champions to win 7-1.
And what about that Munich test? The German champions were put to the sword with relative ease at the Parc des Princes, with PSG scoring in the second minute and then going on to win comfortably by 3 goals to nil. And despite Bayern remaining dangerous, can anyone really see them beating PSG in the return game, even at home? Given the incredible form of Neymar, Mbappe and Edinson Cavani, I don’t think so. PSG are the early favourites to take the whole tournament.
#3 Basel
Swiss champions Basel have never really made a massive impact on the Champions League despite appearing there on numerous occasions, and this season wasn’t really expected to see that change.
Granted, they weren’t drawn in the toughest group, but against Manchester United, Portuguese champions Benfica – who made the last 16 of the UCL last season – and CSKA Moscow – not the best side, but still a dangerous team to have to play, particularly away.
Surprisingly though it’s Benfica who have struggled in the group while Basel have done extremely well in terms of their results. A loss to Man United at Old Trafford was largely expected for them to start off their campaign.
But they were then excellent in a shocking 5-0 defeat of Benfica – not only ending an 11-game winless streak but inflicting the heaviest defeat on Benfica for years. They then split results with CSKA – beating them away but suffering a defeat at home – and thus their chance of qualification was in flux.
Not so now. Last night saw them stun Manchester United with a 1-0 victory, as they defended doggedly throughout and scored the winner through Michael Lang in the 89th minute. It was Lang’s only shot of the game but it made the mark his side needed, and now – with only Benfica, who have yet to gain a point, to play, with CSKA facing United, it looks like the Swiss side could qualify for the knockout stages for the first time since 2014/15.
#4 Besiktas
There are a few sides in the Champions League who remain unbeaten right now – Tottenham, Liverpool, Barcelona and PSG to name four – but the most surprising is definitely Besiktas.
The Turkish champions have basically swept through what looked like a relatively even-matched group with last season’s semi-finalists Monaco, as well as Porto and German upstarts RB Leipzig, and they’ve already confirmed their status as group winners, meaning a likely favourable draw in the round of 16.
Under boss Senol Gunes, Besiktas have built a decent side based around a group of hardy European veterans – including Pepe, Ricardo Quaresma and Alvaro Negredo – and a core of home-grown Turkish talent, and thus far it’s proving a difficult combination for any opponents to face, as they took all three points away at both Porto and Monaco, and also beat Leipzig at home too. Draws at home with Porto and Monaco weren’t so good but with 11 points it doesn’t matter now – they’re already through.
How far they can go is a massive question mark, but in Cenk Tosun they also have one of the most frequent scorers in the tournament – he’s got four goals thus far, tying him with Mohamed Salah and Raheem Sterling, and only world-class strikers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Neymar have scored many more. They’ve definitely been one of the surprise packages of the group stage and it should be interesting to see who they draw next.
#5 Roma
Italian Serie A runners-up Roma were drawn in perhaps the toughest Champions League group of them all, facing off against a pair of true giants in the form of Chelsea and Atletico Madrid – the Blues being one of the highest spenders in Europe and with one of the most accomplished managers, and Atletico being perennial contenders over the last few seasons. If you consider that Kazakh minnows Qarabag were fully expected to finish bottom of the group, it was probably expected that Roma would depart to the Europa League when it was said and done.
They still might, but it’s looking doubtful now given they only have Qarabag at home to play, while Atletico need to defeat Chelsea and hope Roma lose to progress. How have they done it? Well, they slipped up last night, losing at the Vicente Calderon to Atletico, but really there’s no shame in that result. But apart from that Roma have been pretty great. They picked up a 0-0 draw with Atletico that gave them a solid start, and from there it’s been up and up.
A comfortable win over Qarabag was followed by a thrilling 3-3 draw with Chelsea, a game that saw them come back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 before conceding a late goal, and then their next result was a revelation – Antonio Conte’s Blues were put to the sword 3-0 at the Stadio Olimpico, as Roma took advantage of Chelsea’s defensive weaknesses largely involving Gary Cahill. A 1st-minute goal for Stephan El Shaarawy – one of the quickest in Champions League history – set the tone for the win.
Now Roma are practically through to the knockout stages and with the likes of El Shaaraway, Edin Dzeko and Radja Nainggolan in their ranks, they could be a dark horse to watch in the later rounds.
