And so, in double quick time, the Champions League group stages are over.
The World Cup in Qatar has seen to that but there has been no less excitement these past two months and, now we know the final 16, many fans and players will be eagerly anticipating next Monday’s draw.
What we witnessed on the final night of group games were few surprises as the big hitters flexed their muscles – whether they needed to or not – yet there was still late drama as the tournament often provides.
None more flexed their muscles than holders Real Madrid.
Memorably crowned champions of Europe for a record 14th time last May, they despatched Scottish champions Celtic with almost arrogant ease.
To show you how impressive the triumph was, the victory means boss Carlo Ancelotti now has 102 Champions League wins to his name, moving level with the great Sir Alex Ferguson for most wins in the history of the competition by a manager.
Real were 2-0 up after 21 minutes as Luka Modric and Rodrygo converted penalties awarded for handball.
Celtic then missed a penalty of their own before Marco Asensio, Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde made it a rout for the defending champions, the visitors managing a late consolation.
It means that Real have won all three home group stage matches in a Champions League season for the first time since 2015-16, a campaign in which they went on to win the competition.
Victory meant they secured top spot in Group F with RB Leipzig netting four without reply against Shakhtar Donetsk to end the Ukrainians’ hope of pipping them to second spot.
It was a similar story in Group E where the two clubs expected to progress created more Champions League 2022 highlights to do exactly that.
Chelsea were in trouble when they took just one point from their opening two group matches but four successive victories – culminating in a 2-1 success against Dinamo Zagreb, courtesy of Raheem Sterling and Denis Zakaria – secured top spot from Italian champions AC Milan, themselves 4-0 winners over Red Bull Salzburg.
The only downside for Chelsea was the sight of Ben Chilwell hobbling off at full-time with a suspected hamstring injury and the World Cup not far away.
Manchester City, favourites to win the tournament with the SBOTOP Champions League 2022 betting odds, showed why as they rested a number of key players and still saw off Sevilla 3-1 at home.
They had already won their group with Borussia Dortmund guaranteed second spot.
That left Group H where Juventus were already embarrassed and eliminated.
There was one more twist though as Benfica pipped big-spending Paris St Germain to top spot in Group H in the most dramatic of fashions.
Benfica thrashed Maccabi Haifa 6-1 and PSG won in Turin 2-1.
Yet the order at the top was not as predicted.
Amazingly, two late goals – in the 88th and 92nd minutes – meant Benfica topped the group on… away goals after finishing level with the Parisians on points, goal difference, goals scored and wins.
That won’t happen again for a long time, if ever.
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