The second round of UEFA Champions League and Europa League fixtures dominated the headlines across Europe this week.
Real Madrid’s shock defeat to LOSC Lille and Bayern Munich’s equally shocking 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa grabbed most of the column space, while some was also saved for Juventus’s dramatic win over RB Leipzig too.
There was also a big win for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who showed their superiority over Paris Saint-Germain at the Emirates Stadium without ever really getting out of second gear.
With week six of the season in the history books, it’s time for 90min‘s all-important power rankings.
Borussia Dortmund earn a spot in the rankings this week thanks to their thumping 7-1 win over an in-form Celtic side in the Champions League in midweek.
Yes, 7-1, you did read that right.
The win was the club’s biggest win ever in the Champions League. Nice one.
If you’ve watched Real Madrid this season, you’ll know that something’s not quite clicking at the Champions League holders right now.
Be that because of the signing of Kylian Mbappe, or the inability to replace the guile of Toni Kroos in midfield, Carlo Ancelotti’s side have struggled to really put a marker down in 2024/25.
They were once again quite disappointing during their 1-0 defeat to LOSC Lille in midweek.
A tactical rethink is needed at the Santiago Bernabeu.
It’s fair to say it was a pretty mixed week for Barcelona.
On one hand, they comfortably beat a rather terrible Young Boys team 5-0 in the Champions League.
On the other, they suffered their first defeat of the La Liga season at the hands of a Bryan Zaragoza-inspired Osasuna.
The reason they’re down five this week is because the latter much outweighs the former.
It was all going so, so well for Bayern Munich.
And then they went to Villa Park.
Overwhelmed by the raucous atmosphere in the midlands, and an energetic Aston Villa side, the Bavarian giants fell to a shock 1-0 defeat in midweek.
They’ll have to improve massively on this performance if they’re going to have any hope of winning the Champions League in 2024/25.
Something rather unheard of happened this past week:
Viktor Gyokeres didn’t score a single goal for Sporting CP in their 3-0 win over Estoril Praia or their 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven.
That may be the biggest shock of the 2024/25 season thus far.
Bayer Leverkusen’s credentials were really put to the test this past week with games against Bayern Munich and AC Milan.
A draw with Bayern in the Bundesliga was followed up by an impressive 1-0 over Milan at San Siro.
Suffice to say, those results show that Xabi Alonso’s side mean business this season.
The recent shock defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield could’ve really stopped Liverpool in their tracks under Arne Slot.
Instead, the Reds took the defeat in their stride and have been utterly brilliant ever since.
Five wins from five in all competitions in recent weeks tells you all you need to know.
As we seen in the weekend draw with Newcastle United, life without the injured Rodri may prove tricky for Manchester City against the top teams in Europe in 2024/25.
Against lesser teams though, City have enough squad depth to cope – as evidenced by their 4-0 win over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League in midweek.
– Goalkeeper sent off? Check.
– Star defender tears ligaments in the first-half? Check.
– Go behind on two occasions? Check.
– Up against an immensely talented RB Leipzig team? Check.
And yet, Juventus managed to secure an astonishing 3-2.
We’re still scratching our heads and trying to work out they did it. A large part of it is thanks to Dusan Vlahovic, who put in a stunning centre forward performance at the Red Bull Arena.
If you need a sign that Arsenal are capable of winning the Premier League and Champions League in 2024/25, this past week was it.
The Gunners secured a dramatic 4-2 win over Leicester City with two late goals, before comfortably seeing off European giants PSG 2-0 a few days later.
They’re very, very good, aren’t they?
