Biggest surprises of the final UCL matchday

The second iteration of the UEFA Champions League league phase has now come and gone, and we have our 24 teams that will advance either to the playoff phase or to the round of 16.

The best storyline of the final day came in Portugal.

Despite a 3-0 loss to Brugge, Marseille seemed to be in line to make it through.

This seemed so certain that Brugge even put a message up on the video board congratulating the French runners-up on qualification.

However, things changed in an instant.

Benfica was chasing a goal that would’ve knocked out the French side and sent themselves through, and with Real Madrid down to nine men, that goal came from an incredibly unlikely hero.

Anatoliy Trubin, the Benfica keeper, headed one in to score the first goal of his professional career and what will almost certainly be the most important goal of his career pushing the scoreline in favor of Benfica 4-2, sending them through to the knockouts on goal differential.

This was a crushing blow for Marseille, so crushing, in fact, that manager Roberto De Zerbi handed in his resignation letter less than 24 hours after the match.

It has been a somewhat frustrating season for Marseille, as they squandered their best chance to win a trophy in over 5000 days while also not challenging PSG as they hoped.

Speaking of PSG, it was a difficult end to this league phase for the European champions.

Luis Enrique’s side seemed sure to end up in the top eight early on, as they reached as high as second.

However, a late collapse, in which they took only two of the nine possible points against Bilbao, Sporting and Newcastle, saw them fall to 11th.

They will face fellow Ligue 1 side AS Monaco in the playoffs before facing either Barcelona or Chelsea, two clubs they have history with, in the round of 16 should they advance.

While they should advance past Monaco, the concern for the French champions comes from how many matches they’re playing.

PSG players are dropping like flies after an incredibly short offseason due to the Club World Cup, and this squad did not need two more high-intensity matches.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is the most recent injury, as he went down with an ankle sprain against Newcastle.

I think the biggest storyline this year is how many of the elite clubs played up to standard.

This was not the case last year, as many elite sides found themselves in the playoffs.

However, when you look at this group of teams with a bye, you see most of the names you would expect there.

The group of Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Bayern, Barcelona, Sporting and Liverpool probably contains at least five or six of the best eight sides in the world.

I think you could replace Tottenham and Sporting with PSG and Inter or Real Madrid, but this is still an incredible group.

This is going to provide an interesting next few rounds, as the playoffs will be very well-matched and we will see elite football all over the bracket in the round of 16.

Edison Pellumbi is a first-year student studying broadcast journalism. To contact him, email him at ejp5889@psu.edu.