A Beautiful Game Played at the Highest Level
An advertisement for this year’s Champions League
By Prahlad Sankrti
The knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League have well and truly arrived. If that sentence means nothing to you or doesn’t get your spine tingling with anticipation, it might be time to reconsider your priorities this spring.
Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and the Champions League represents the pinnacle of all the beautiful game has to offer. Each year, it pits some of the world’s finest clubs against one another, and only one remains at the end of it all, triumphant over the rest. The top teams from Europe’s domestic leagues face tougher and tougher tests, as the gladiatorial contest separates the good from the great. The best players in the world find their peak level in the knockout matches, and the intensity of the latter stages regularly produces profound moments of quality.
If you like superstars, this competition is simply the biggest stage on which they perform. The likes of Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar will be put to the test as virtually every round guarantees a cracking tie involving one of their teams. Kevin De Bruyne, Kylian Mbappe, Sadio Mane, and other top stars will also look to bring their A-games in pursuit of glory.
Last year, we witnessed two dramatic comebacks by English sides in the semi-finals, as Liverpool went on to clinch their first title in 14 years. We also got to see maybe the most epic and tumultuous match in the competition’s history in the second leg of Man City vs Tottenham (a.k.a. “THAT VAR match”), which threatens to become a forgotten classic (though hopefully not anytime soon).
As for this year? The field is truly wide open, which is always exciting. Last year’s champions, Liverpool, are going through a great run of form, but their domestic rivals Man City may quietly be bigger favorites. In Spain, Barcelona are perennial contenders, and Real Madrid can never be counted out. Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Paris Saint-Germain round out the upper echelon of teams that could easily go all the way. Sides like Dortmund, Chelsea, and Atletico Madrid would be extremely surprising winners, but don’t expect them to go quietly as they look to spring an upset or two.
As the Round of 16 comes to a close this week, we will inch one step closer to discovering which club will be thought of as the best in Europe (and really, the world) come the month of May after the final in Istanbul. Whoever is destined to achieve immortality this season, spare a thought for the sheer thrill of the ride and the little moments of magic and sparkle (a half-turn from Hazard, or a slide-rule pass through to Lewandowski) that make up the UEFA Champions League.