#3 Will we see any one-sided games?
As the competition is primarily made up of the cream of the crop of European clubs, you don’t really expect any one-sided thrashings in the Champions League, particularly once the wheat has been separated from the chaff after the group stages are done. Last season though threw up some astonishing results in the knockout stages too, results that sent shockwaves across Europe.
We had the second-round games involving Arsenal and Bayern Munich, for instance, a tie that was expected to be competitive given Arsenal had beaten Bayern at home in 2015/16’s group stage. Instead, Bayern hammered the Gunners 5-1 both home and away in one of English football’s most embarrassing results. Then there was the wild Paris St. Germain vs. Barcelona tie that saw the French side win the first leg 4-0, only to lose the second 6-1 to allow Barca to somehow go through.
Even the quarter-final had a one-sided result – Juventus comfortably beat Barcelona 3-0 in the first leg of their tie, effectively killing the hopes of Barca despite their miraculous comeback in the previous round.
Will this season see any similar results? Who knows? But the Champions League has always thrown up the odd crazy result – remember when Man United hammered Roma 7-1 in 2006/07? – so surely 2017/18 won’t be any different.
