La Liga becomes the leading force in Champions League

That is certainly unfortunate, but not surprising. The four former European champions who beat them in the play-off round were also: PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Feyenoord.

How to make 8 big names clash with each other in 4 pairs of play-off tickets, that is "a done deal". The new format of the Champions League this season is too... crazy. Lesson learned: The overall ranking of all 36 participating teams (although most of them have not met each other) has an effect on each specific position, not just deciding which group of teams will continue or have to play in the play-off. Next season, the "giants" will have to approach the "league" stage with a different strategy, a different spirit.

Although Liverpool rose to become the number 1 candidate for the championship after topping the overall table in the "league" stage, they had to give this position back to the winner of the play-off pair that could be called an early final: Real Madrid - Manchester City.

Real are through, and the odds for Real to win the title are now 4/1, slightly ahead of Liverpool (9/2), while third-placed Barcelona are favourites (6/1). With Atletico eighth in the betting charts, La Liga is the clear favourites as the Champions League enters the knockout stages.

Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe (9) celebrates scoring a hat-trick in the 3-1 play-off win over Manchester City

In contrast to La Liga, Serie A is now the weakest of the top five European national championships. There are five teams represented in the "league" stage, but Serie A now has only Inter (the seventh candidate for the championship, below PSG of France). As a result, the points and bonus points for Serie A in the next rounds will be extremely low, and this has important implications for the race for the fifth place in the Champions League next season among the powerhouses.

Inter themselves are not sad, they are even certainly happy that 4/5 Serie A representatives were eliminated early. In the upcoming rounds, as long as Inter is not eliminated, the entire Serie A share from the Champions League television copyright will belong to Inter alone (UEFA divides the Champions League television copyright money according to the market. For example, the share for the English market in the upcoming round will be shared by the 3 representatives of this country: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool).

This afternoon (6pm, February 21, Vietnam time), the detailed draw results for the round of 16 will be available. Currently, it has only been determined that PSG will meet Liverpool or Barcelona; Brugge will meet Lille or Aston Villa... The specific journey of each team, from the round of 16 to the final, has also been predetermined.

Kylian Mbappe (Real) could be the star to watch in the upcoming rounds. He just shone in the 3-1 play-off win over Manchester City, becoming the first player in Champions League history to score a hat-trick at both legendary stadiums: Nou Camp (Barcelona) and Bernabeu (Real). French team Lille could be the "dark horse" of this year's tournament.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/la-liga-tro-thanh-the-luc-hang-dau-champions-league-185250220221927719.htm