UEFA Champions League: A True Group Of Death
The Champions League is one of the most prestigious tournaments in football. Just like any other Champions League, a group or two will be hard to predict. The group in question for this year was Group F, which consisted of Borussia Dortmund, PSG, AC Millan, and Newcastle.
There has never been a group as stacked as this one, it’s always three good teams and one that isn’t as good. But every time that type of group plays out one of the three good teams has a bad tournament and underperforms. This year’s Group F lived up to the hype compared to other groups of death from previous years.
This group had everything starting with questionable referee calls. The biggest one of the groups was the Newcastle and PSG game. In the last minute, the referee made a bad call with a handball in the box and ruled it as a penalty for PSG. Mbappe took the penalty and scored it to give life to his side. That game made Newcastle drop from second to third which meant that they were in a Europa League spot.
There were many close games between the teams. Sometimes they drew and other times a team won by a goal like AC Millan. Their final two games were 2-1 victories over PSG and Newcastle. Rafael Leao and Giroud helped Millan beat PSG which was a must-win game because they had only two points out of a possible 12 in four games and were sitting in last place. In the final game of the group stage, they played Newcastle in their home ground where it’s almost impossible to win games there, but Chukwueze bagged a goal in the 84th minute to give Millan the victory.
Even though they're all good teams there were some very dominant performances. Like Borussia Dortmund versus AC Millan. Dortmund beat them 3-1 in the San Siro where they confirmed they're first placed finish in Group F.
The other game that could be considered an upset was Newcastle versus PSG. Everyone expected PSG to destroy Newcastle because of the players they have. Their players on paper are considered better and are worth more. The game ended 4-1 in favor of Newcastle, they had a great defensive display and took their chances when they had the opportunity.
The group was like a rollercoaster, the teams never stayed in the same position. After every match, the teams would shuffle around until the very end. Surprisingly Dortmund took the first-place spot after being last place. They will be playing PSV in the round of 16 and will probably advance to go into the quarterfinals.
The other team that qualified was PSG which wasn't a shock, but it was shocking that they weren’t first place in the group. They will be playing Real Sociedad in the round of 16 which was their best outcome considering the other first-place teams they could’ve faced. Even though Real Sociedad topped their group they will go out against PSG in the round of 16.
In third place AC Millan clutched it in the last game against Newcastle they needed to win to have a chance to stay in Europe. Their opponent is still unknown because the Europa League will be playing the round of 32 and the third-place teams from the Champions League get a pass until the round of 16.
Newcastle United, unfortunately, got eliminated and will need to finish in the top five in the Premier League to qualify again. They sit in sixth place for now and have a good chance of moving up when they get their players back from injuries.
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