Robert Lewandowski and his fabulous season: 61 goal participations in 44 appearances
Photo:TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
Eight teams competing in one place in knockout mode: the final tournament in Lisbon is something of a European Championship at club level. The format is due to the circumstances, maybe it will remain unique. But it's also delightful. In just one game it is decided who will advance, not two. A deflected shot, a missed big chance, a wrong decision, all of this can determine whether a team has to go home - or whether they can keep dreaming of the title. That should favor outsiders.
And there are actually an unusually large number of outsiders in this quarter-finals. The balance of power between the teams is surprisingly unequal. Italy's serial champions Juventus are not in the round of eight for the first time in four years - Juve failed at Olympique Lyon. Probably the best team in Europe is not even there: Last year's winner Liverpool, who scored 99 (!) Points in the Premier League, had already been thrown out in the round of 16 against Atlético Madrid, despite 34:10 shots in the second leg (final score: 2: 3).
This time there are a few teams that are among the very tight favorites - FC Bayern is one of them. The tournament that starts on Wednesday will show exactly where Bayern are to be classified in the field. But we already dare to make a prognosis about the balance of power.
We contrasted our subjective impressions with facts. The points average from the last 20 competitive games helps to classify the class and form of a team. We also calculated goals scored and conceded in the same period. This is sometimes to be enjoyed with caution - some of these games are far behind due to the corona break. But we didn't want to do without what the numbers reveal.
All of this results in our ranking of the eight finalists - here it is: