Five Talking points from Champions League Midweek
As the group stage of the Champions League concludes, the 16 teams who will participate in the knock out stages are clear. In the last week of the Champions League, various lessons were learned. Let us look at the five talking points of the week.
#1 Liverpool Simply not good enough
When Liverpool participated in the Champions League for the first time since 2009, hopes and expectations were high. However, the expectations of the great European nights at Anfield turned to disaster for the Merseyside outfit. After winning the opening match against Ludogorets, Liverpool endured a miserable run in the competition as they lost three consecutive matches to virtually end their chances of qualifying.
A team simply cannot qualify from a group by just winning one of the six matches.
Moreover, the second place team in their group did not fare well either as Basel managed only 7 points from the 6 games. If Liverpool had managed to get one more victory, then the Anfield club might be sitting in the next round draw on Monday. Despite the result, Liverpool will still be at the knockout stage draw ceremony but, only for the Europa League.
Club captain Steven Gerrard coming out and accepting the fact that the team did not deserve to go through, speaks volume about the clubs poor performance in the group stage. It is hard to imagine how Liverpool will recover from this setback. Also, with the Reds struggling in the league, they may not return to the competition any time soon.
