Halftime in the group stage of the Champions League: There were a striking number of home wins, an average of almost three goals per game and one big surprise.
Football rushes through the English weeks leading up to the World Cup. Partly The Champions League runs through its program on a weekly basis. Started on September 6th, a month later half of the 96 group games have already been played. Time for an interim balance.
When the groups were drawn at the end of August, the 32 clubs were divided into four pots. The supposedly weakest teams ended up in pot four. The tables after three matchdays show that these teams actually occupy the last place in the group in seven cases.
Glasgow Rangers, Viktoria Pilsen, Olympique Marseille, Dinamo Zagreb, Celtic Glasgow, FC Copenhagen and Maccabi Haifa all picked up just eight points. That’s one less than Club Brugge collected. The fourth-pot Belgium champions lead their group with nine points and 7-0 goals.
On a surprise scale of 1 to 100, Brugge’s performance against opponents Atlético Madrid, FC Porto and Bayern Leverkusen is at least a 99, while the top scorer is a straight one. Erling Haaland scored five times and the fact that he only scored twice in the 5-0 win against FC Copenhagen was probably because coach Pep Guardiola substituted him at half-time.
Behind Haaland, the list has a surprise in store, as Leroy Sané from FC Bayern takes second place with four goals. Only behind comes his former teammate Robert Lewandowski from FC Barcelona with three goals, who has to share third place with six players. Among them is another player from the Bundesliga, and Jude Bellingham, who has only scored four goals in 69 Bundesliga games for Borussia Dortmund.
| place | Surname | association | Gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Erling Haaland | Manchester City | 5 |
| 2. | Leroy Sane | FC Bayern Munich | 4 |
| 3. | Jude Bellingham | Borussia Dortmund | 3 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Barcelona FC | 3 | |
| Mohammed Kudus | Ajax Amsterdam | 3 | |
| Kylian Mbappe | Paris Saint Germain | 3 | |
| Noah Okafor | RB Salzburg | 3 | |
| Giacomo Raspadori | SSC Naples | 3 | |
| Piotr Zielinski | SSC Naples | 3 |
A total of 139 goals have been scored in the previous 48 games, which corresponds to an average of 2.9 per game. SSC Napoli scored 13 goals, equaling the combined totals in Groups D and E. The Italians, also leaders in Serie A, won 4-1 against Liverpool, 3-0 at Rangers and, coming from behind, 6-1 at Ajax.
So it wasn’t as if all the significant successes were to be expected, as is often the case in the Champions League. Of the 48 games so far, however, nine actually ended with a difference of three goals, seven even with a difference of four or more goals.
On average, six out of ten games end in a home win
The high proportion of home wins is striking. The home teams won 29 of 48 games, which corresponds to a quota of 60 percent. There were 13 away wins and only six draws.
Eight wins for Bundesliga clubs
A draw, Frankfurt Eintracht’s 0-0 draw against Tottenham Hotspur, was played by a German team. The Bundesliga teams have won eight of their 15 games and have lost six accordingly. As usual, Bayern are enthroned at the top of the table with nine points and 9-0, but the chances of the other four German teams to reach the round of 16 are intact, as a look through the individual groups shows.
Group A: tension behind Napoli
SSC Napoli has nine points and the best cards to win the head-to-head against Liverpool and Ajax, even if they lost the second leg. With an outstanding home game against Glasgow’s Rangers, who are pointless and goalless, Napoli should progress.
Liverpool currently have three points more than Ajax, another game against Rangers ahead of them and possibly the advantage that Napoli will already qualify for the round of 16 on the last day of the game. But the team of German coach Jürgen Klopp is currently showing many weaknesses, especially on the defensive, has a difficult program in the Premier League ahead of them and the away game in Amsterdam. The Dutch champion therefore rightly hopes to advance.
Group B: It couldn’t be more open
Club Brugge has nine points, the other three teams behind them each have three points. A group can hardly be more open.
Bayer Leverkusen has the advantage of being able to host the league leaders and FC Porto in their own stadium, possibly with a boost from new coach Xabi Alonso.
Group C: Barcelona and Inter facing a hugely important game
Bayern Munich is almost through, for the two teams behind them there is an enormously important game on the fourth day. Inter Milan, who won 1-0 against FC Barcelona on Tuesday (October 4th, 2022), will then play the second leg in Catalonia.
Should the Italians get at least a draw while currently three points ahead, it will be very difficult for Barcelona to stay in the Champions League.
Group D: Frankfurt with every chance
Sporting have six points in first place, while Olympique Marseille have three in last. In between are Tottenham and Eintracht Frankfurt with four points each.
Means: Each team can still win the group, just like being eliminated in fourth place, which is not even consoling with relegation to the Europa League. Frankfurt only has one home game left, but that doesn’t have to be a disadvantage for the Hessians, as the past few months in the Bundesliga and European Cup have shown.
Group E: two points between top and bottom
That Chelsea at Dinamo Zagreb was one of the biggest surprises in the Champions League so far. However, the damage is limited, because RB Salzburg, as leaders in the table, has only one point more than the English, who, like AC Milan, have four points.
With Zagreb on three points, Group E is the tightest game.
Group F: Leipzig with a mortgage
Real Madrid are ahead with nine points and are as good as further. Leipzig is one point behind Shakhtar Donetsk in third place and also has the disadvantage of having lost the first leg 4-1 against the Ukrainians.
Goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi, who tore a cruciate ligament in the win against Celtic, will also play in the remaining three games and long beyond.
Group G: Dortmund with the very best cards
The 4-1 win at FC Sevilla on the third matchday put Borussia Dortmund in a very good starting position. In the second leg on Tuesday (October 11th, 2022) against the team from Andalusia, the place in the round of 16 could be made perfect.
The prerequisites for this would be that FC Copenhagen wins a maximum of one point against Manchester City and BVB wins a second time against Sevilla (with a new coach).
Group H: Juventus under pressure
Juventus may have clinched their first win against Maccabi Haifa on matchday three, but the result of the parallel game dampened the Italians’ joy. With Benfica drawing 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain, the Portuguese are four points ahead of Juve, as is PSG.
Another advantage for Benfica: the second leg against Turin will be played in Lisbon. It is hardly to be expected that PSG will fall back to third place.