First 18 teams UEFA Women's Champions League The group stage is over! We've had six game days in one league phase table and featured a host of the world's best players, but we're now down to the final 12 teams.
How did it go for the participating teams? It's safe to say that not everyone went according to plan, and our ratings reflect that.
ABOUT LEVEN (A+)
They may have only finished 12th, but making the play-off playoffs would have been beyond the wildest dreams of the Belgian minnows in their first UWCL tournament. A win over Twente and draws against PSG, Paris Saint-Germain and Roma ensured their success. They even managed to hold Barcelona and Arsenal to just three goals each.
MANCHESTER United (G)
United's debut UWCL campaign and what a debut it was. Three hard-fought wins in their first three matches against Valerenga, Atlético Madrid and PSG secured their success, while a 1-0 win over Juventus on the final day meant defeats to Wolfsburg and Lyon meant little. The paper-thin team was able to seal a favorable playoff tie with a sixth-place finish, which is something of an achievement.
BARCELONA (A-)
They topped the table, which was to be expected given their 7-1 thrashing of Bayern Munich in the first round, and their plus-17 goal difference after five wins showed their superiority. But the 1-1 draw with Chelsea suggests they could be vulnerable as the tournament progresses and will have to find a way to cope without injured star midfielders Patri and Aitana Bonmati.
OL LYONNE (A-)
Lyon's star power shone brightly, averaging three goals per game and five wins from six. But they needed to come back from 3-0 down at half-time to Juventus to secure a 3-3 draw, so they didn't have it all their way. They are certainly one of the favorites to reach the final.
CHELSEA (B+)
In true Chelsea style, less than 100% is not enough, so two draws (with Twente and Barcelona) brought their ranking down. They otherwise scored 16 goals against Paris, St. Polten and Roma before a 2-1 comeback win over Wolfsburg sealed their place in the top four on the final day.
BAYERN MUNICH (B+)
A 7-1 thrashing of Barcelona suggested it would be a tough campaign, but Bayern turned things around and beat Juventus, Arsenal (with a superb comeback), PSG and Valerenga. Even a 2:2 draw with Atlético Madrid could not stop their progress. They will be strong opponents for anyone.
ARSENAL (B-)
The defending champions didn't look their best. They squeezed into the top half of the knockout stages thanks to the misfortunes of other teams, but it was a shock that they did not qualify automatically after modest defeats to Lyon and Bayern Munich. They did well to beat Real Madrid 2-1 to avoid a worse fate, but were also lucky to play lower-ranked Leuven, Benfica and Twente to put much-needed points on the board.
VALARENGA (B-)
They fought to reach the playoffs right up to the final round, which was not initially in the plans. The win over Roma was the Norwegian side's greatest achievement, while they squandered a 2-0 lead at St. Pölten (ending in a 2-2 draw) and narrowly lost to Manchester United, Wolfsburg and Paris before losing 3-0 to Bayern on the final day. If not for the draw with St. Pölten, they could have progressed.
TWELVE (C+)
A shock 1-1 draw with Chelsea on matchday 1 might have set the tone, but they were defeated 2-1 by Leuven in their next game and that sums it up. Two draws (the other was against Benfica) were not enough to avoid relegation, before they almost beat Real Madrid in the final game but drew 1–1.
REAL MADRID (C+)
Things were looking good for Madrid after thrashing Roma 6-2 in the first game and beating PSG 2-1 in the second. They suffered a setback, drawing 1-1 with Paris and then losing to Arsenal, but then turned things around with a win over Wolfsburg on matchday five. This meant that all they had to do was beat lowly Twente to seal their automatic place. But they drew 1-1 and now face a tough relegation draw.
JUVENTUS (C)
Juve failed to make it out of the group stage last season, losing to Arsenal and Bayern, and they were again too inconsistent. They beat the ones they needed to beat: Benfica, St. Pölten and Atlético. And they almost did enough to beat Bayern (lost 2-1 thanks to a stoppage-time goal) and Lyon (draw 3-3 from 3-0). But when it mattered, they lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United on the final day and failed to secure an automatic place.
WOLFSBURG (C)
The two-time champions and four-time runners-up are hoping to return to the top of the game, but judging by the 3-1 defeat to Lyon and the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, they are not there yet. Wins over PSG, Valerenga and Manchester United were routine, but they really flopped when they lost 2-0 to Real Madrid. They were expected to secure an automatic place after the fourth round, but having now finished ninth they find themselves at a disadvantage in the play-offs, although no one will want to face them.
Paris FC (C)
They performed better than their local rivals PSG, but it was a very mediocre performance from the Parisian club. An opening 2-2 home draw with Leuven, a 4-0 loss to Chelsea and a 2-0 defeat to Barcelona suggest they won't cause too many problems in the knockout stages, although they held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw, requiring Caroline Weir's 98th-minute equalizer to beat Benfica and “Valerenga.”
ATLETICO MADRID (C)
Defeats to Juventus and Manchester United, as well as a 2-2 draw with Bayern, left Atlético struggling at home. But they beat Twente and St. Pölten on the road before losing 4-0 to Lyon, which was enough to seal a tie in the bottom half of the knockout stages. But they won't bother too many opponents.
ST. POLTEN (C)
They finished last in the table, but that was quite expected. The Swiss minnows managed to pick up a point with a return draw against Valerenga, but they prevented OL Lyonnes from scoring more than three goals. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the others and they finished with a disappointing result. minus-25 goal difference in six games.
BENFICA (H)
The Portuguese side never really made it after they took an early lead to Juventus in the first game and lost to four from six. Yes, they had a tough run of games against Juve, Arsenal, PSG and Barcelona, but their only points came in draws against Twente and PSG.
ROMA (F)
They are top of Serie A, but Roma have been very poor in Europe and appear to be missing the spark of former coach Alessandro Spugna. They lost their opening matches to Real Madrid (6–2) and Barcelona (4–0) and never recovered. They should have picked up valuable points against Valerenga and O'H Leuven but could only draw with the latter before a 6-0 thrashing of Chelsea saw their play-off hopes fade. A 6-1 win over lowly St. Pölten on the final day meant nothing.
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (F)
What a terrible campaign. Many believed PSG would be pushing for an automatic place at the top of the table, but instead they lost four of their first four games (to Wolfsburg, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Bayern Munich) before a 0-0 draw with minnows Leuven sealed their fate and they were only able to draw with Benfica on the final day with nothing at stake. They had a big lineup change, but that's no excuse for this level of play.
