Well, that’s a wrap.
It’s been a gruelling few months of UEFA Champions League action – possibly way too much of a good thing for many of us – but the group stages are finally complete.
The usual suspects are through in Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, while some other big hitters have been knocked out of the tournament at the very first hurdle (here’s looking at you Juventus and Barcelona).
Here’s a quick look at the fate of every team in the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stages:
1) SSC Napoli
2) Liverpool
3) Ajax
4) Rangers
Napoli were the feel-good story of the Champions League group stages, dazzling fans with the sheer amount of goals they scored – 20 in just six games.
Liverpool finished with 15 points – level with Napoli but with a worse head-to-head record – and will be quietly pleased with their progress in Europe despite their disastrous start to their domestic season.
Ajax obviously dropped into the Europa League because they were obviously the third best team in this group.
Rangers now hold the record for the worst team to ever play the UEFA Champions League having lost all six games, conceded 20, and scored two.
1) Porto
2) Club Brugge
3) Bayer Leverkusen
4) Atletico Madrid
Atletico Madrid dropped out of European competition altogether despite being handed, on paper at least, a pretty kind group stage draw.
And shoutout to Club Brugge for being a fairytale of a f**kin’ football team in the Champions League this season. Great stuff.
1) Bayern Munich
2) Inter
3) Barcelona
4) Viktoria Plzen
FC Hollywood lived up to their nickname big time by winning every single one of their group games – the only team in the competition to do so.
The real story of the Group C however was Barcelona who, despite spending roughly a trillion euros on players in the summer, still managed to drop into the Europa League for a second consecutive season.
1) Tottenham Hotspur
2) Eintracht Frankfurt
3) Sporting CP
4) Marseille
The tightest group of all was, as expected, decided by a last minute goal. That goal would be scored by Tottenham, who topped the standings after gameweek six.
1) Chelsea
2) Milan
3) RB Salzburg
4) Dinamo Zagreb
Hands up if you guessed that Group E would finish this way. That’s right, everyone put your hands up because it was incredibly obvious how this group would pan out.
1) Real Madrid
2) RB Leipzig
3) Shakhtar Donetsk
4) Celtic
The Champions League holders cruised through to the round of 16 with a game to spare.
Celtic, on the other hand, can take some solace in at least not being as bad as Rangers.
1) Man City
2) Borussia Dortmund
3) Sevilla
4) Copenhagen
Of course Manchester City won their group and remained unbeaten throughout.
And, yes, of course Sevilla will win the Europa League despite being a rather terrible team this year.
1) Benfica
2) PSG
3) Juventus
4) Maccabi Haifa
Yep, you read that right.
Benfica topped Group H ahead of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus (maybe the Juventus part isn’t that impressive).
Despite PSG winning their final group game 2-1, Benfica’s incredible 6-1 win over Maccabi Haifa in Isreal ensured that the Portuguese side topped the the group on goals scored away from home.
Yep, goals scored away from home.
Truly what the Champions League is all about.
