Winners and losers of the Champions League

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winners

Marouane Fellaini
Jose Mourinho was quick to go on the offensive after Manchester United qualified for the knockout stages, noting that he had participated 14 times in the Champions League group stages and that he had succeeded each time.

The manager payment line – "Just a little curiosity to note for all my lovers" – an attempt to cut on social media that lets everyone think you're a bit bitter. Manchester United is well understood in Group H, but nothing will surprise to finish ahead of Young Boys and a Valencia team that has won three of its 13 games in La Liga this season.

Instead, praise Fellaini, who is the true architect of the Manchester United qualification. Two of the three victories of their group were inspired by carnage inspired by Fellaini. He panicked Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini in Turin and scored the winning goal against the Young Boys. He may well be the only midfielder or striker in the form of Manchester United.

Fellaini, which is so crucial for United, is a sad impeachment of the club's performance level. The supporters would very much like to see Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez dominating on the flanks and thus giving Romelu Lukaku the opportunity to conclude, with Paul Pogba for creative mastermind of the central midfielder.

But the needs must, and this must not hurt the contribution of Fellaini. He may be clumsy, but he causes panic. It may be worrisome that Plan B often becomes Plan A while United is getting slower in attack, but the plan often works. It may be sad that they needed him to save them at home from the worst team in the group, but save them he did.

Manchester United
As low as the bar wasthey cleaned it up. Just about.

Paris Saint-Germain, finally delivering
Such is their financial domination in League One, PSG will never be judged on its European performance. They had played eight Champions League games last year and had won just two against Celtic and Crvena Zvezda. Six games against Napoli, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid resulted in four defeats and two draws.

Thomas Tuchel's team, who beat last season's finalists in the first 30 minutes, felt like a brilliant victory. It was a reflection of the style that Liverpool himself had used under Klopp last season, an early salvo taking the match out of reach of his opponents.

Marco Verratti is a brilliant central midfielder, even though he should have been deported. Thiago Silva is a defensive leader. Angel Di Maria is way better than the ghost player we've seen in the Premier League. Juan Bernat is an excellent left-back. Marquinhos played superbly in a defensive role in midfield.

But in reality, it is above all the first three. Between them, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani have scored 126 times in all competitions for PSG since the start of last season. They have the skills, speed and power respectively that make it the perfect attack unit. Keep shooting like Wednesday, and PSG can really win this game.

Tottenham
A lifeline of the Champions League. If it was not an impossible task for Tottenham to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League with two games to play, it is highly unlikely to cover him. The first minimum requirement was to beat Inter by two draws or 1-0 and thus beat the Italians head-to-head. The second half of the task is even more difficult: reconcile the result of Inter in his easiest group match (PSV at home) in Tottenham, the most difficult, in Barcelona in a fortnight. But there is still a chance.

It is equally important to note that the victory over Inter maintains Tottenham's brilliant career. They have won six consecutive games in all competitions since their home defeat against Manchester City. If they had left the Champions League, morale would have been stung before the derby of North London. Mauricio Pochettino has now led them to victory in their first two games in eight days. Avoid defeat at the Emirates on Sunday, and it will have been another great week for the top-performing Big Six manager.

Mauricio Pochettino …
… and a plan that was played at pure perfection.

Moussa Sissoko
As I was coming out of Wembley towards the endless line leading to Wembley Park, a song began and spread like wildfire, the way they tend to do when a great mass of Supporters are satisfied with what they have come to attend. "Wake me, before leaving, leave. Who needs Basel when you have Sissoko? "They sang. It has been a long time since this song has not been heard.

Of course, the lyrics are not meant to be taken entirely seriously, but they embody The redemption of Sissoko in Tottenham. If Saturday earned him praise for his work as a midfield destroyer, it's a race forward in the penalty box that helped the Tottenham winner on Wednesday. Beautiful game bloody young man.

David de Gea
Stop the clocks and pick up the phones. Turn off all forms of communication with the outside world. Draw David de Gea into a dimly lit room and lock the door. Read him poetry, play him love songs and add as many numbers to already important numbers until he agrees to stay.

De Gea has not been at his best this season, which means he's behaving like most of the best goaltenders. His backup percentage in the Premier League is only 67.6%, 16th in the division. This reflects both that Manchester United has left its opponents clear opportunities, and that its own form does not quite match the brilliant precedent.

But in the big moments of the big matches, De Gea is undoubtedly the most frequent savior of United. The late backup of Ulisse Garcia's deflected shot was extraordinary. De Gea has the ability to react to a moving ball as he witnessed life passing more slowly than us.

"I know he's happy here, I know he wants to stay and I know the council is working for that to happen," Mourinho said after the match. If these three statements are true, United's fans can at least have confidence in an element of their uncertain future.

Jose Mourinho

No voice to that.

real Madrid
Suffering at home, but purring again in the Champions League. Nothing summarizes the ability of Real Madrid to forget his fight in La Liga when he plays in Europe, like the loss to Eibar for the first time in his history on Saturday, before crushing the semifinalists on Tuesday. last season in the Stadio Olimpico.

In doing so, Real has confirmed his place at the top of Group G with a game to lose. This is still happening.

Lyon
It may seem a little condescending to congratulate any team drawing at home, especially when this team is the second best in the group. But it should not. Lyon are 15 points behind Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue One, but they tested Manchester City like no other non-English club has done since Monaco in March 2017. French football may have some depth after all.

Maxwel Cornet is the Lyon star against City, with three goals in two games, but the whole team deserves praise. No team of this season has made City so uncomfortable in realizing Pep Guardiola's plan, but that is largely due to Bruno Génésio's courage to leave at least two or three players in the game. before during the attack on City. If this reduces the game to an organized chaos, where both teams took turns to attack, that's what you can hope for against City in this form.

Lyon's midfielders of the future
What time for Houssem Aouar and Tanguy Ndombele to face a team that could soon replace his aging midfielder.

Memphis Depay
Created six chances against City in 90 minutes on Tuesday. The entire Manchester United team has created four players earlier this month against the same opponent. I'm just saying.

Mario Mandzukic
Cristiano Ronaldo is the superstar and Paulo Dybala the young man amazed, but let's not forget the old Mario. Mandzukic has only played 1,000 minutes in Serie A and the Champions League combined this season, but he scored six goals in the league and on Tuesday scored the winner to secure first place at Group H Juventus. Ignore it at your own risk.

Ajax
The knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time since 2006, after finishing behind Arsenal and overtaking FC Thun and Sparta Prague in a gloriously sweet group. No team in the competition conceded fewer goals and eight of the team members who started in Athens were 22 years old or younger. For those of us of a certain age, it's the wonderful nostalgia of a young Ajax team that is still making waves.

Robert Lewandowski
His two goals on Tuesday allowed Lewandowski to overtake Thierry Henry and rank sixth overall in all-time goals in the European Cup. It's clear that the list is weighted to today by adding groups to its current format, but it's still a record. Plan his career accordingly, and Lewandowski could retire behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Arjen robben
We are in 2058 and the world is a waste land. The last remaining humans survive through victory in fights against giant roaches roaming the earth. They can only be destroyed by being placed in incinerators that then bury their toxic remains deep in the soil.

One morning, Arjen is on patrol somewhere in the eternal desert that was once central Europe. After 40 minutes of his usual ride, Arjen sees an antenna coming out from behind a rock. The cockroach, usually a resourceful beast, is exposed. He will pay for this mistake.

Arjen immediately goes to work. Running along the opposite side of the big rock, he surprises the cockroach by surprise, hitting his prey from behind and sending him tail down several meters from him. Arjen stops for a moment, catching up with her cockroach, dragging her one foot on the other to keep her stunned.

Twenty meters away is the incinerator, a small open hatch and is waiting for a delivery. Arjen dares not take the blues. He had never liked bringing such a thing closer to his face than it was necessary. He had seen too many scars on too many faces for that.

Instead, Arjen performs his party turn. Plunging from one side, he kicks the cockroach to the side, making the incinerator appear around another rock. As the beast begins to shake, Arjen knows that he has his chance. Striking the cockroach with the inside of his left foot, he sends it to wind up in the air and in the hatch of the incinerator.

Arjen immediately goes into party, as he has always done. The rest of the nomadic tribe thought that he was only celebrating his purpose and ridding the earth of another poisonous animal, but Arjen knew differently. He did not celebrate success. he cherished the past, when that left foot earned him the glory and glory that cost him nothing. This faithful left foot had never let it down then. It would never be now.

Oh yes, Robben scored twice against Benfica. You already know what the goals were like.

losers

Liverpool
Not a disaster yet, but last year's finalists are flickering on the brink of elimination. In all likelihood, Jurgen Klopp's team must beat Napoli by two clear home goals to reach the last 16 games. Their destiny is always within their reach, but it is a great demand.

When he woke up Thursday morning, Klopp had to wonder how his team was in such trouble after defeating PSG at Anfield in their first match of this group stage. The answer lies in three outdoor performances, whose quality varies from dismal to slightly less lamentable, and three away defeats in the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in their history.

Add the semifinals to the return and final matches last season and Liverpool have lost five straight games in the Champions League, far from Anfield. There is clearly a problem, which lies in the passivity of central faults and in individual defensive errors.

Klopp foresaw the performance in Paris. He warned his Liverpool team that they had to be ready to play ugly and they were unable to do so. PSG was guilty of a little outrageous game in the second half, but they acquired this position of authority by being much too agile for Liverpool.

If losing to one of the richest clubs in the world is hardly a problem, it is the problem of reducing your margin of error by losing in Belgrade and Naples. For the first time in a long time, Klopp is under pressure to react. Do not win the Merseyside derby at Anfield on Sunday, and he will fight for that big ambitions this season do not collapse before Christmas.

Jordan Henderson
Sent Saturday and humiliated on Wednesday, it was not a good week for the Liverpool captain. By facing the best in the industry, Henderson failed. He was not the only one responsible, Liverpool struggling to face the remarkable fourth of PSG, but he failed to protect the defense. He will have Sunday to watch from the stands.

Marcus Rashford
Started as center forward and had six shots, but only one was framed. The most frustrating of all was the two missed opportunities that led his manager to wince and groan on the sideline. If playing against the weakest team in the group offered Rashford the opportunity to recover some confidence at the club level, he backed down again.

You can reasonably argue that Rashford plays under the bad manager. Young players need time and patience to make mistakes without fear of being harangued publicly. The difference between Rashford's form and the trust placed in Manchester United and England could well be explained by the pressure he has to succeed and by the way it manifests itself in the reactions of his respective leaders.

Since he's scored twice against Liverpool in March, Rashford has scored four times for England but three times in 27 games for Manchester United. Not good.

But Rashford must make the best of it and find a solution. If Jose Mourinho is not going for the moment, his only option is to dig and hope that the current doldrums of the goals disappear to open to a new dawn.

Phil Foden
We were all sure of his departure, given the praise of Pep Guardiola before the match and the Manchester City manager repeatedly declaring that Foden was ready to start from the first minute. And he was sitting on the bench.

I understand that it is difficult. Each match is subjected to such pressure that it is difficult to play a young child at the highest level. When they arrive, it's usually because the injuries left the manager with less choice. Foden will start the last group game in the Champions League and probably the quarterfinals of the EFL Cup against Leicester City.

But it's football that counts the most and helps the most young players develop. The minutes of Foden in his seven Premier League matches this season: 8, 21, 2, 15, 18, 1, 21. The minutes of Foden in his two Champions League matches this season: 1, 3. The score at the time of his introduction in the four matches when Foden played more than 10 minutes: 4-0, 3-0, 5-1, 3-0.

The minutes in a high-pressure scenario are worth much more than the dead coatings and fixtures during the secondary competitions, and Foden is sorely lacking. Yes, he's only 18, but every coach working with Foden thinks he's ready. It's a compliment for him that I include it in this section because everyone is so excited to see him make a difference.

Isco
Oh dear.

Christian Pulisic
Oh dear, oh dear.

CSKA Moscow
After 55 minutes, CSKA had a 1-0 lead over Viktoria Plzen who kept his chances of reaching the knockout stage. Full time, they somehow managed to lose at home against one of the weakest teams in the competition and were virtually sure not to play Europa League football in the spring. A special effort.

Hoffenheim
Without a win, and almost sure to finish in the last position of the group F after finding the path of Shakhtar before losing the game for the second time. Julian Nagelsmann having left the team at the end of the season, it is feared that this great period of outperformance is coming to an end.

Galatasaray
The chance of progress is over, but the possibility of finishing in the last position of group D is very real. It would be disastrous.

Daniel Storey

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