With the trio of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez

Barça qualified for the next round as leaders of their group. A goal from Ibrahimovic, was countered with a goal a-piece from Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez. We didn’t see a glittering Barça last night, who at times were under extreme pressure which París Saint Germain applied, but they were clinical up-front. The team can always rely on its star players. Luis Enrique is still in the process of working things out, but his Barça side are where they should be, on top of their Champions League group and just two points behind Madrid in the league, having being able to keep up with Madrid’s amazing run of victories. It’s not the Barça of old, and we still don’t know if the team will get to that level, but it’s a Barça side with Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez.

So we ended up with three group leaders and a third position for Athletic Bilbao, who given they were things initially started managed to salvage their situation. The excitement of beating Napoli in the play-off place to gain access to the Champions League group stage was such that it felt like the seasons work had been done. Sadly not, that’s just when the season started and it took Athletic too much time to realize this. At least they came third, and still get to travel around Europe, albeit in second class. It may be for the best. The Europa League is more tailored to the meet the demands of Athletic’s squad size, lacking in certain positions and who only really shine when they firmly believe in themselves..

Three first positions and a third placing, as earlier mentioned. Good for the image of our league. Germany edges us out slightly with four teams qualifying, Bayern and Borussia as group leaders and Schalke and Leverkusen as the second place teams. England has Chelsea as group leader with Arsenal and Manchester City as their second placed teams. Liverpool have to make do with the Europa League. In Italy, only Juve, who we saw in Atlético’s group are into the next round. Roma missed out and also have to settle for the Europa League. Italy are starting to slip after a recent improvement. The tournament sees 10 of the last sixteen teams come from three countries: Spain, Germany and England.

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