Real Madrid's new poster boy stole all the headlines, but he was certainly not the only big story in a drama-filled round of European action
The inaugural Champions League play-offs reached their enthralling conclusion this week, with Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Feyenoord, PSV, Benfica and Club Brugge all securing a place in the round of 16. They will be picked out of the hat in Friday's draw alongside Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa, who all qualified automatically after finishing in the top eight of the league phase.
A grand total of 160 games have already been played in this season's competition, 35 more than across the entire previous format, and there are still another 29 to come before the 2024-25 European champions are crowned on May 31 at the Allianz Arena in Munich. It's been an exhausting journey to this point, but there's no denying that the play-offs brought back the sense of jeopardy that was lacking in the first stage.
Only one of the 16 matches ended up goalless as fans were treated to breathless end-to-end contests like Manchester City's 3-2 home defeat to Real Madrid and Benfica's 3-3 draw with Monaco. Most teams ditched a safety-first approach in favour of a gung-ho one, which made for quite the spectacle, and not all of the historically elite clubs managed to survive.
We now know the main contenders, the dark horses, and the complete failures who have a lot of soul-searching to do over the next few months. GOAL runs through all the winners and losers of the play-off phase below…
Getty/GOALWINNER: Ronaldo-esque Mbappe
After a slow start to life at Real Madrid, Mbappe is now up to 28 goals in his first season at the club, with 11 of those coming in his last seven appearances across all competitions. The former PSG frontman suddenly looks like the best player in the world again, and Manchester City had no answer to his genius at Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Mbappe hit an incredible hat-trick to give Real a 3-1 victory in the second-leg clash and dump City out of the competition. All three goals were right out of the top drawer, and inevitably led to comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, who regularly delivered match-winning performances of that ilk throughout his nine-year spell in Madrid.
Ronaldo's record total of 451 goals for Los Blancos is a long way off at this stage, but Carlo Ancelotti sees no reason why Mbappe can't go on to emulate the five-time Ballon d'Or winner. "He has the quality to reach his numbers, but he has to work, because Cristiano set the bar very high. But he is so excited to play here, he can reach Cristiano's level," the Madrid boss told reporters after the game.
Mbappe is the true heir to Ronaldo's throne. No limits should be placed on what the Frenchman can achieve with Real, who will go on to defend their European crown if he maintains his electrifying form.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportLOSER: Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola's empire has fallen. Manchester City's miserable season hit a new low as they were played off the park in Madrid. In the absence of injured goal-scoring terminator Erling Haaland, City posed almost no threat to Ancelotti's superior side, and Guardiola made no excuses after failing to reach the Champions League last 16 for the first time in his managerial career.
"It’s the year we’ve been the worst," he said. "We have been a great team and this year, for many reasons, we are not." Guardiola looks and sounds like a defeated man. Not even an emergency £200 million ($250m) winter splurge on new players could save City from European humiliation, and now, they only have the FA Cup left to play for.
Just 21 months after winning the treble, City are in crisis, and it's patently obvious Guardiola doesn't have any idea how to get them back on track. He's gone from near-God-like status to a figure of ridicule, with Madrid fans heard sarcastically chanting "Guardiola stay!" when the final whistle blew in the Spanish capital.
City's decision to tie Guardiola down to a new two-year deal in November has backfired dramatically. Much like at the end of his tenure at Barca, it seems that the Catalan is running on empty. No lasting damage has been done to his legacy at the Etihad Stadium yet, but that could soon change, especially if he also has to deal with the fallout from any severe punishment in the club's court case against the Premier League.
AFPWINNER: Purring PSG
Is this the best PSG team we've ever seen? That was the overriding feeling after their crushing 10-0 aggregate annihilation of Ligue 1 rivals Brest on Europe's biggest stage.
Luis Enrique has claimed that the French champions have become a stronger unit since Mbappe's exit, and it's hard to argue with that assessment. Gifted youngsters like Bradley Barcola and Joao Neves are already fulfilling their potential, Ousmane Dembele has enjoyed a remarkable resurgence to finally shake off the tag of Barcelona flop, and household names such as Gianluigi Donnarumma, Achraf Hakimi, Marquinhos and Vitinha have all been near-faultless.
PSG started slowly in the league phase, but clicked into top gear in their 4-2 win over Man City, and laid down a marker as potential Champions League winners with their demolition of Brest. Luis Enrique has so much firepower at his disposal, with January addition Khvicha Kvaratskhelia completing the attack, and he's also built a fearsome defence that looks capable of holding out against the very best. This much is certain: neither Liverpool or Barcelona want to face PSG in the last 16.
Getty Images SportLOSER: Bayern's title credentials
Bayern Munich are not going to be lifting the Champions League trophy in their home stadium. That is what we learned from their extremely unconvincing play-off win over Celtic, which was only confirmed after Alphonso Davies' scrappy late equaliser in the second leg of the tie at the Allianz.
Harry Kane's prolific exploits won't be enough to outweigh Bayern's limitations as a collective in the latter stages of the competition (assuming he makes a full recovery from a niggling calf issue). There will be a repeat of the 4-1 league-phase humbling at the hands of Barcelona somewhere down the line, because Vincent Kompany's team are little more than possession-merchants who crumble when the ball is turned over.
The centre-back partnership of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae is failing, and Bayern have a real problem in midfield, with Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretza showing signs of decline. Bayern still have plenty of depth up top, but they're not incisive enough under Kompany, who is still struggling to prove himself as a top-level manager.