A spot in the Champions League is the ultimate honor that a European soccer team can achieve in one season. With the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Juventus, this year’s Champions League has been quite the show to soccer fans around the globe.
The Champions League procedure is simple: a qualifying process in the summer pre-season, group stages in the fall, and the knockout rounds of 16 after the new year begins. Teams from the same country cannot play each other in the group stages or the round of 16. It then goes to the quarterfinals, semifinals, and of course the final match.
In the group stages, a team plays all of the teams in their group, home and away. For example, if Real Madrid were in a group with Juventus, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea, Real Madrid would play each of those teams twice, once each in Spain and once away at their respective locations (Italy, Germany, and England, respectively). In the knockout stages, the fixture is played over two legs at the two teams’ locations; an aggregate scoring system is used, meaning that the team with the highest score over the two games wins. If there’s a draw in both games, whichever team scored more goals while they were away is deemed the winner.
In the group stages, Manchester United had to beat VFL Wolfsburg for a spot in the round of 16. However, a Naldo brace and a Vieirinha goal gave the latter the win, banishing the former to the Europa League, another European competition. PSV Eindhoven had managed to beat CSKA Moscow 2–1 to seal the top spot in the group, with Wolfsburg as runner-up. Manchester United’s noisy neighbors had more luck in the group stages as Manchester City beat Borussia M’gladbach 4–2 to pick up the top spot while Italian giant Juventus settled for runner-up after losing 1–0 to Sevilla. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich had no trouble getting top spot in their groups. Paris Saint-Germain, AS Roma, and Arsenal all got second in their groups, with AS Roma setting the record for the team with the least amount of points in a group that qualified to the knockout stages.
Arsenal had a dismal Champion League campaign, losing its first two games. A surprising victory against Bayern Munich had given it hope of qualification, but it lost 1–5 in the reverse fixture. Arsenal managed to win its last two games to send itself into Champions League contention. Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid’s crosstown rival that got into the final of the 2014 edition, surprisingly finished runner-up to Benfica in its group, while its Spanish counterpart Valencia lost out to Ghent and Zenit St.Petersburg in its group. Chelsea has had an awful season in the English Premier League and there were actually fears of relegation. Its performance in the Champions League was completely different, though, as it won its group with Dynamo Kviv finishing as runner-up.
In the most climactic matches of the Champions League, Barcelona played Arsenal while Bayern Munich met Juventus in a clash of the titans. Chelsea met Paris Saint-Germain in a rematch of last year’s round-of-16 game. Barcelona practically killed Arsenal with goals coming from MSN, the nickname for the trio consisting of Lionel Messi, Luís Suárez, and Neymar. The two finished 5–1 aggregate in the span of two games. Bayern Munich beat Juventus 6–4 aggregate after trailing by two goals in the second leg, which would’ve knocked it out of the Champions League. Chelsea lost to PSG 4–2 aggregate, which was somewhat close in the first game. However, Chelsea lost momentum in the second leg, which allowed Zlatan Ibrahimović to score the winner and put Chelsea out of the tournament. Real Madrid encountered and defeated AS Roma 4–0 aggregate. Meanwhile, Manchester City, Benfica, Wolfsburg, and Atletico all advanced to the quarterfinals.
Manchester City avenged its fellow English team Chelsea and beat PSG 3–2 aggregate. Benfica did its best, but could not contain the attacking power of Bayern Munich and lost 3–2 aggregate. Real Madrid surprisingly lost in the first leg to Wolfsburg 2–0, but Cristiano Ronaldo put on a show and scored a hat trick to win the tie 3–2. Real Madrid fans were more pleased to see their longtime rivals and current holders, Barcelona, get knocked out by a formidable Atletico Madrid on 3–2 aggregate. Every fixture in the quarterfinals ended at a 3–2 score, highlighting the competitive nature of the Champions League.
Atletico Madrid contained Bayern Munich and progressed to the final over the two legs. Saúl, of Atletico, scored a spectacular solo goal to win the first game that gave Atletico the advantage heading to the Allianz Arena. Vidal pegged one back in the second leg, but Antoine Griezmann scored the equalizer that put Atletico all but through to the Champions League final. Lewandowski scored in the last 15 minutes of the game, but could not prevent Bayern Munich from crashing out of the Champions League. The fixture finished 2–2 on aggregate with Atletico going through on away goals. Real Madrid and Manchester City played to dull 0–0 draw before Gareth Bale scored the lone goal for Real Madrid in the second leg.
Real Madrid advanced to its second final in three years and will play Atletico again after having met them in the 2013–14 Champions League Final. Real Madrid won 4–1 after trailing 1–0 in the 93rd minute. Sergio Ramos had scored the equalizer at death and Atletico had collapsed. Goals from Gareth Bale, Marcelo, and Cristiano Ronaldo finished off Atletico and gave Madrid their “La Decima” (10th European Cup). Atletico will be looking to avenge that defeat and win its first Champions League in club history. The Champions League final will take place on May 28 at the San Siro (Giuseppe Meazza), home of both A.C Milan and Inter Milan. It will be a defensive and tactical Atletico versus a rejuvenated Real Madrid. The game will be too close to call, and it might take a special player to give one of the teams the edge.