The UEFA Champions League was back with a bang this past week, and it was unsurprisingly box office television.
Vinicius Junior and Raphinha inspired Real Madrid and Barcelona to big wins over German giants Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich respectively, while elsewhere it was really all about the English teams, who continued to dominate the competition with Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa all racking up important wins.
And after all of that fun, here’s 90min’s rankings for the top teams in Europe right now.
Europe’s top clubs are all aware that Jonathan David’s LOSC Lille contract expires at the end of the 2024/25 season, right?
Because the Canadian certainly looks good enough to play for pretty much every single top club in Europe.
He’s proved as much by inspiring his current club to two remarkable wins over Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in recent weeks – scoring three goals against Spain’s two capital clubs.
Arsenal’s disciplinary issues came back to bite them over the weekend at the Vitality Stadium.
For the third time this season already, an Arsenal player saw red in the Premier League – this time William Saliba – and for the first time this season, said red led to them suffering their first defeat of 2024/25.
There’ll be no Invincibles this year, I’ll go tell AFTV.
Inter may not be the most exciting team in the world to watch, but they may one of the most effective.
The current Serie A champions are as solid as anyone defensively and, in Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez, they have two game-breaking players in the final third.
Both their forwards came up trumps this past week, scoring winners against AS Roma and Young Boys.
According to the Champions League table, Aston Villa are currently the best team in Europe.
The Villans made it three wins from three in the competition this past week by brushing aside Serie A side Bologna with consummate ease.
Next up in the Champions League is a trip to the ‘fairytale of a f**kin’ town’ Bruges to face Club Brugge.
Sporting CP’s 2024/25 Liga Portugal campaign so far:
Played: 8
Won: 8
Drawn: 0
Lost: 0
Goals for: 27
Goals against: 2
Points: 24 out of 24
They’ve able to bring that form to the continent too, beating Sturm Graz in midweek. Top class.
In typical Real Madrid fashion, Carlo Ancelotti’s side came from 2-0 down to beat Borussia Dortmund 5-2 in the Champions League in front of a raucous Santiago Bernabeu in midweek.
And in typical Vinicius Junior fashion, the Brazilian was the man to inspire the crucial win with a hat-trick.
He has to win the Ballon d’Or next week. There’s no one better than him in the world right now.
No European football = Antonio Conte excelling.
That’s generally how it’s worked throughout Conte’s managerial career, and that’s exactly how it’s working right now at SSC Napoli.
The enigmatic manager has gotten Napoli firing on all cylinders again on the domestic front, and they are currently top of Serie A as a result.
Don’t be too surprised to see them still atop of the standings come May.
The win over Wolves wasn’t pretty, by bah gawd was it important.
John Stones’ 95th minute goal saw City leapfrog Arsenal in the Premier League table and put themselves in a pretty nice spot ahead of the Gunners facing current league leaders Liverpool this weekend – a game in which City fans will be hoping both clubs take points off one another.
On the continent, it was much smoother sailing for City on Wednesday evening as Erling Haaland bagged a brace in a thumping 5-0 win over Sparta Prague.
You certainly wouldn’t have been remiss to think that there’d be some drop off at Liverpool following Jurgen Klopp’s departure.
Amazingly, what we’ve bore witness to instead, is an ascension of sorts.
The Reds currently look like a better, more solid, more offensively effective side than they did in the final months of Klopp’s tenure. As a result, they currently find themselves top of the Premier League table and sitting pretty on three wins from three games in the Champions League.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool look like a force to be reckoned with.
Hansi Flick was probably the only man in the world that saw world class potential in former Leeds United forward Raphinha.
Considering the fact that Barcelona were hellbent on signing Nico Williams in the summer, certainly none of their higher-ups though Raphinha could be this good.
And yet, here we are. Eight weeks into the 2024/25 campaign, with Barcelona top of La Liga and coming off the back off a 4-1 win over Bayern Munich thanks to world class performances from one Raphinha.
The Brazilian netted a stunning hat-trick in the win over Bayern, taking his tally for the season to 15 goal contributions in just 14 appearances. He’s outstanding.
