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The 2020 Champions League group stage is, of course, just as the whole world has been special this calendar year. We may have gotten used to the fact that great sensations are relatively rare in the group circle, but there were surprises in the special circumstances. The real big fights will follow in the spring.
Due to the coronavirus, it was not easy to qualify and race in the Champions League either, especially since the previous competition only ended at the end of August, while the qualifiers for the new competition had already started. The qualifying phase was handled by UEFA in almost a month, with one-game duels followed by round-trip ties. The group stage was also quickly eliminated in this year’s Champions League, and after the start in late October, the 16 teams that made it to the spring jump already knew each other in early December.
With the exception of two groups, perhaps everyone could go safely and the identities of the two advancers could be guessed with great certainty beforehand, with the four B’s and H’s becoming the two true death groups, where two big guns ended up in shame.
So the groups looked like this after the draw:
Hungarians in the Champions League
The draw brought unprecedented excitement from the Hungarian point of view, because after a long time, thanks to Ferencváros, the Hungarian team also became interested in the draw, but due to Péter Gulácsi and Willi Orbán, Leipzig and Dominik Szoboszlai could be forced to Salzburg, Paris Saint-Germain matches can be seen if necessary.
A Ferencváros after surviving four qualifying rounds, he returned to the main table of the Champions League. The Greens were last in the group circle 25 years ago and it cannot be said that Sergei Rebrov’s team would have been in the easy group.
After last year’s group stage in the Europa League, Fradi has already received a real star team in the BL, another issue is that sadly fewer people could have seen world stars up close than they could have been. in a “year of peace” due to the corona virus. The fact that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi met again in the Ferencváros group makes these four especially memorable.
All that can be said briefly about Fradi’s performance is that the Hungarian champion was right. With the exception of a home game against Barcelona and an away game against Dinamo, Ferencváros has always scored a lot of time at Juventus’ home, and Dinamo saved two points at the Groupama Arena against Kiev by a deficit of two. goals. for the spring sequel to the Europa League. Fradi was also better than Dinamo in some places, but the Ukrainians eventually won 1-0, so they can look forward to El’s spring games draw.
By the way, thanks to the excellent international performance of the last two years, Ferencváros is ranked 112th in the latest team ranking, which also means that Sergei Rebrov’s team has advanced more than 200 places since 2017. Regarding the UEFA qualifying coefficient in the playoffs, the Verdiblancos advanced from a value of 9.5 in the summer.
The group was ultimately won by Juventus ahead of Barcelona, with the Italians winning 3-0 in Spain thanks to two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo.
To Hungarian fans Dominik Szoboszlai It was also worth turning on the television. The Hungarian national team and the Salzburg star sent their team to the group stage with fateful penalties against Maccabi Tel-Aviv, and one of Europe’s greatest talents was not even ashamed of the best.
With a termination price of 25 million euros, Szoboszlai could also be tested against the best in Europe, as in addition to Lokomotiv Moscow, the Austrian champions joined the group with Atlético de Madrid and reigning champions Bayern Munich.
Szoboszlai’s goal against Lokomotiv:
In his first two games, Szoboszlai scored two goals immediately, fired a bomb at home against the Russians, and then took Jan Oblak’s goal in Madrid, which not many can say for themselves. There was still possibility of advancing on the last day, if Salzburg had beaten Atlético at home, the first could have continued in BL and the second in El, but Szoboszlai also fired two great situations, so the spring El. Continued . At least for Salzburg, because it could easily be that Dominik Szoboszlai is no longer fighting for the success of the Austrian team, but this will be announced by the end of January at the latest.
The group was eventually won without a hitch, undefeated by defending champion Bayern Munich.
Rescued from Real Madrid stunned by Inter
Group B had incredible excitement before the last lap. Borussia Mönchengladbach (8 points) and Sahtar Donetsk (7) were leading, but even before the last matches, everyone expected Real Madrid (7) and Internazionale (5) to advance, not without reason.
Real made their own difficult situation after being eliminated from team Sahtar in the first round at home and then the rematch was also won by the Ukrainians. Sergio Ramos, with whom Reality is always different on board, was able to return to the game against the Germans.
Real Madrid could have come out of the group stage for the first time since the Champions League, but Zinédine Zidane’s team didn’t let everyone laugh, Karim Benzema beat Real with two goals and won his group. With these two goals, Benzema beat Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. Of the active players, they only scored a minimum of 50 goals in the Champions League group stage matches.
Real Madrid and has been on a hot streak, so far in its history, BL has advanced from all 29 group rounds, including the second group round that existed previously.
It became an iconic scene as the ‘Gladbach’ players kept watching Inter’s match after the blowout, which was later brought down.
Inter should have won (so that the Madrid game was not a draw) and then surely they would advance, but Antonio Conte could not cross his own shadow. Inter failed to score against Sahtar, and 0-0 meant that the Milan team was eliminated and finished last in their group at BL for the first time in their history.
In the 89th minute, Lukaku unintentionally saved behind Alexis’s head:
In his coaching career, Antonio Conte has never reached the Champions League quarter-finals and has now withdrawn from the group for the second time in a row with the Milan team, but now the continuation of the Europa League will surely be left behind. .
Hungarian successes in the other group of death
Manchester United will at least be able to continue their spring leagues in the Europa League, but that now does not comfort anyone in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team and many of the fans are not happy about that fact either. And that’s not how the group stage started, not really.
After two rounds, Manchester United fans were joking optimistically about whether a group of death really looks like this. Solskjaer’s team was able to win 2-1 first in Paris, home to finalist PSG, and then in the second round, the final semi-final, Leipzig got a five at Old Trafford.
Then came the third round, Manchester United knocked out 2-1 at Basaksehir’s home, with many saying the three points left here were the main reason for the team’s defeat. Other than that, the Turks were unable to score a point in the group.
In the penultimate round, PSG were able to win at Old Trafford. This match will be remembered for Fred’s red card and United’s shooting opportunities, but the bottom line is that PSG, United and Leipzig were also nine points ahead of the final round.
On the final matchday, Péter Gulácsi and Willi Orbán also played the starting roles against the Manchesterians, and the Germans went ahead 2-0 in 13 minutes, but it could have been more. Manchester has completely fallen apart, even though they have entered the field in the biggest game of the season so far. In the end, he came out in vain “only” 3-2, he knew how to embellish it with a penalty and a ball that bounces after a header corner.
The need to be complete also includes the fact that Gulácsi still put up a good defense in the moments of overtime, and 3-3 would have meant the English advance, and then we could talk about another great return to Manchester now, but it was not so.
The other last round match was also memorable. The PSG-Basaksehir match was interrupted by the “negruing” of the Romanian fourth official and could only be completed one day later. The team also had at least 20 goals, and the Frenchman passed Messi’s record to the past, becoming the youngest to reach the 20 mark.
So PSG won 5-1, giving the French and German teams a 12-12 point lead, and United stalled by nine points, falling as the first English team to score nine points after four rounds.
As for the rest of the groups, in D, Atalanta beat Ajax at home in the final round, securing their pass behind Liverpool, while in F, Lazio could get a little excited until the final 0-0 against Brugge, but they also managed second place behind Dortmund.
With regard to the runners-up, the scissors between the teams of the superior league and the others will remain open, this time only Porto could have a voice in the “greats”.
The round of 16 will be drawn on December 14. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain await the draw.
Atlético de Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Porto, Atalanta, Seville, Lazio, Barcelona and Leipzig will not be highlighted in the draw.
A priority team will receive a non-priority team, teams from the same country and advanced teams from the same group will not be able to receive each other.
Curiosities and records of the group
- Manchester City scored a single goal in the group stage, setting a record for several teams. He has never closed a team group stage in the BL without a goal.
- Barcelona also set a record by failing to win their group with 15 points scored.
- Marseille may be less proud of their record: they lost 13 matches in a row in the BL. The series began in 2012 and ended in December when the French team beat Olympiacos 2-1.
- Olivier Giroud has become the oldest player to score at least three goals in a BL game since the series was named. The French forward scored four goals against Sevilla at 34 years and 63 days.
- Real Madrid’s Brazilian Vinícius Júnior became the fastest substitution goal in BL history, scoring a goal 14 seconds after being sent onto the field.
- Borussia Dortmund player Youssoufa Moukoko became the youngest player in the series to play against Zenit at the age of 16 and 18 days.
- Mircea Lucescu, coach of Dinamo Kiev, became the oldest coach of the series in the match against Ferencváros at the age of 75 and 132 days.
- Stéphanie Frappart became the first referee to appear in a BL match, leading the Juventus-Dinamo Kiev match.
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