Even with the intrigue of Ronaldo’s new challenge at Juventus, group stage still feels like a warm-up act
IF the inescapable feeling ahead of a new Champions League campaign is that the group stage is all just glorified pre-season until the competition proper starts in March, then there is one element that could indicate an awful lot about how things will end in Madrid in June.
It revolves around the dominant storyline going into this campaign, as well as the last half-decade’s dominant club and most domineering figure — not to mention the prestigious event’s greatest pretenders.
The four Champions Leagues won by Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo over that spell were partly a consequence of the Portuguese star’s record-breaking 105 competition goals in nine years at the Bernabeu, with a majority of 55 coming in the group stage.
For all that some might have made light of how most of the heavy lifting in that haul came in four-goal rallies against teams like Malmo, that is a mistake, because such displays were really just an extension of his excessive general scoring. They showed how he and Madrid so often rose to the rarefied air of a Champions League, and it’s not like he didn’t show up for the big games.
The 2017 final stands as his legacy performance in the competition, and is all the more relevant to this season. Ronaldo scored the two game-changing goals that defeated Juventus 4-1, and this chastening experience was doubtless one more major reason why the Italian champions made the leap to sign him, to try and make the final leap as a team.
But that is also why these first-round games might mean more than usual, especially in light of Ronaldo’s relatively slow first games for Juventus.
If the Portuguese doesn’t fire at this stage as he used to, it might well show why Madrid made the decision to get rid, or that the winning of this competition is a lot more complicated than just superimposing its ultimate superstar and winner onto your system.
A reunion with old club Manchester United in the group stage’s glamour fixtures does admittedly further complicate things, in what is this season’s toughest group, as Juventus and everyone else seek to change the same old story.
Because, if Real don’t fire at this stage as they used to, it might well show what a mistake they made in selling a star like Ronaldo without a successor. Can you replace the effect of 40 goals a season that readily?
It might show how those goals lifted an incomplete team in the Champions League, to take advantage of the inherent inconsistencies of a knock-out competition; how they immediately solved so many problems.
There is already much debate over whether the quality of this Madrid side has actually matched their historic legacy; whether they are as sensational as four Champions League wins in five years would argue.
That is the second most im- pressive run in European Cup history after the same club’s five in a row from 1955-60, but the fact they were accompanied by only a solitary domestic title argues against that.
What seemed to drive them through the Champions League was this power, this irrepressible certainty about the competition, that Ronaldo personified and took to a peak.
Whether they have that same power as they seek four in a row — and five in six — is another huge question.
We might finally see a change to the champions.
Leo Messi is one figure said to have been newly energised, Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United all turn their attentions to the start of the 2018-19 Champions League campaign this week. Here, we take a look at some of the main talking points.
Liverpool’s perfect start to the new campaign will face the acid test when Paris St Germain come to Anfield tonight. With Napoli and Red Star Belgrade also in Group C, Jurgen Klopp’s men have not been given a clear passage through to the knockout stages, so can ill afford to be playing catch-up. However, the Reds can take heart from last season’s home performances in Europe, where they were unbeaten in their seven matches and outscored opponents 24-6 en route to the final. Despite their dominance of the English top flight last season, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City came up short in Europe, failing to get the better of Liverpool in the quarter-finals. French side Lyon, who have not reached the last 16 since 2011-12, head to the Etihad tomorrow night, and are not expected to offer much resistance. Guardiola knows tougher challenges lie ahead if his well-oiled side are to make it to Estadio Metropolitano on June 1 — because he knows that he and Barcelona have greatly underachieved in the competition of late, especially since they have so often proven themselves the best side in their country by winning the Spanish league so often. A highly motivated Messi is a very dangerous prospect.
Proving they are also the best in Europe by successfully navigating a high-quality highstakes knock-out, however, is another matter.
This is one thing Manchester City will empathise with, even if they have been so impressive that the feeling is now that they already surpassed Madrid and Barcelona last season. They feel especially while aiming to maintain a successful domestic title defence.
After finding himself under the spotlight during a testing first few weeks of the season, Man United boss Jose Mourinho would probably be glad to be opening their Champions League campaign against group minnows Young Boys rather than a high-profile encounter. That is yet to come against Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo. United produced a solid display to end Watford’s 100% start on Saturday, which was a second straight win as the Red Devils aim to move on from defeats by Brighton and Tottenham. Expect more of the same tomorrow as Mourinho looks to build up another head of steam. After a lack of transfer activity by Spurs, there were plenty of questions ahead for Mauricio Pochettino. However, after three straight Premier League wins, everyone was left wondering what all the fuss had been about. But a jaded Tottenham have now tasted back-toback defeats. The challenges ahead in Europe offer little respite, with a visit to Inter Milan first up tonight. Barcelona and PSV are also in Group B, which means there are few margins for error if Pochettino is to guide his side through. this is their time.
Pep Guardiola must first prove one of his sides do not fall victim to the same flaw that has finished his European campaigns for four of the last five seasons: a susceptibility to sudden collapses after getting caught once.
It happened with Bayern Munich against Real Madrid and Barcelona, and then Manchester City with Monaco and Liverpool.
Solving this is now “an obsession” for Guardiola, according to one senior figure at the Etihad. It has consumed much of his summer planning, and so many of his thoughts since that painful elimination. He wants to get this right, and would see winning a league and Champions League with City as his greatest achievement.
The great issue with the group stage, a slightly awkward group for City notwithstanding, is that he is going to have to wait months to find out where he has discovered a solution.
This is why — as atmospheric as an opening match like Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain will be, or as arresting as a fixture like Barcelona-Tottenham Hotspur will be — these opening-round nights just don’t feel as rarefied or as riveting as the electric knock-out stages. There just isn’t the same sense of tension, or danger.
This is another consequence of the growth of super clubs that has seen single sides enjoy a monopoly in three of the major leagues, and it has made this stage feel like a different competition.
How can you really compare the relative predictability of the groups with the genuinely jaw-dropping primetime drama the knock-outs have offered?
This season’s draw does offer intrigue, and some threat of one or two big clubs going out — especially the groups of United, Liverpool and Tottenham.
It still mostly feels like mere prologue to the main storylines of the season: whether PSG can make a leap with Juventus; whether Liverpool can live up to last season and so much expectation; whether Jose Mourinho will continue to suffer problems; whether Atletico Madrid can finally banish so many ghosts from this competition and rise to the level of the real top clubs; whether any other outsider can match what Diego Simeone’s team or Monaco have done.
There is then the colour of a club like Red Star Belgrade’s return to the competition for the first time since it actually became the Champions League.
Except, this doesn’t feel like the Champions League yet. It’s the pieces being put in place, for the main event to come.