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Bayern's Thomas Müller: successfully defended first place?
Photo:
Martin Meissner / picture alliance / dpa / AP / Pool
The knockout phase of the Champions League begins on Tuesday.
Barcelona receives Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig plays against Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool, there are exciting encounters.
And yet the games will probably turn out differently than in previous years.
When evaluating the last 20 competitive games, which are the data basis for the SPIEGEL rankings, it turned out that the top teams achieved different results during the pandemic than before.
They continue to win, but they win in a different way: defensively more solidly, but with less success in attack.
On average, the 20 teams in the ranking scored 1.93 goals and conceded 0.93 hits.
In the previous ranking it was 2.13: 1.09 goals, i.e. more each time.
The average points remained almost identical (2.05 to 2.03 before).
The teams seem to concentrate on defending particularly well.
That doesn't mean that top teams suddenly holed up in the penalty area.
They just don't involve as many players in attacks as they did before Corona.
Possibly because the distances are long, but the pandemic schedule provides game after game, especially for the top teams with their national players.
There are exceptions.
One is Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola's team is conceding fewer goals than before, but continues to score a lot.
Manchester dominates in every statistical way.
So has the club displaced Bayern from first place?
Regarding the methodology: The decisive criteria are the quality of the squad and coach as well as the point average from the last 20 competitive games.
We also determined goals scored and conceded.
There are also points for success in cup games.
Not every opponent is equally strong, not every game is equally important.
That is why our editorial assessment is included in addition to the statistics.
And: To be represented in the second round of the premier class is not a key qualification.
There are teams that only play in the Europa League, but are rated particularly highly by us - and vice versa, such as Lazio Rome, Bayern's opponent in the upcoming round, which in our opinion is currently not a top 20 club in Europe.
So here they are, the 20 best clubs in Europe right now: