Winners & Losers from the Champions League Group Stages

The group stages of the UEFA Champions League are finally completed this week. Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Real Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Manchester City, FC Porto, Liverpool, Atalanta, Chelsea, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Lazio, Juventus, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig have gone through to the knockout stages while RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiacos, Ajax, Krasnodar, Club Brugge, Dynamo Kyiv and Manchester United will play in the knockout stages of the Europa League with the draw taking place on Monday. 

Winners: Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea

Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have all advanced to the knockout stages top of their groups, with only one defeat between the three of them. All three teams managed to seal qualification with games to spare which gave them the ability to rotate their teams in their final Champions League games, which was helpful in giving some key players a rest ahead of a very demanding fixture period in the Premier League. They will be hoping for a favourable draw in Porto and Lazio but could get a tricky draw in Atlético Madrid and RB Leipzig. Nevertheless, they needed to get qualification, better with games to spare and they did that. Now, they will have to wait for the draw to see who they will face.

Loser: Manchester United 

While Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea can prepare for the knockout stages, Manchester United will be doing the same but in the Europa League. The Red Devils crashed out of the Champions League after losing to RB Leipzig 3-2 and their failure to qualify is on themselves. Despite losing to Istanbul Başakşehir and Paris Saint-Germain, a draw was enough for them to have gone through against Leipzig but poor defending cost them against the Bundesliga side, even though United had a late surge to rescue their European adventure. Now, United have to get Champions League football while playing Thursday night football. An opportunity United lost for their grasps.

Winner: Borussia Mönchengladbach

Group B was the group that went down to the wire as all four teams had a good chance of going through. Gladbach were top of the group in the final group games and managed to advance despite losing 2-0 to Real Madrid. Marco Rose's side deserve qualification for their performances which gave them some key results from the 2-2 draws against Real Madrid and Inter Milan to absolutely destroying Shakhtar Donetsk over the two games 10-0. They could face one of the Premier League sides, Juventus and PSG in the knockout stages but after a great showing, they should go into the knockouts without any fear.

Loser: Inter Milan

Where to start with the Nerazzurri after another failed Champions League campaign. Last year, they failed to go through and were relegated to the Europa League. This season, their European campaign ends after their goalless draw against Shakhtar Donetsk at the San Siro, finishing bottom of the group with only six points. Their fate could had been sealed earlier against Gladbach in Germany if Alassane Plea's goal wasn't ruled out. Bad finishing against Shakhtar aside, Inter were uninspiring with a number of poor performances plus Conte's inability to change things up when they were needed. With the money Inter have put for Antonio Conte, this was a really bad showing for the 2010 winners.

Winners: Lazio

Lazio are back in the Champions League in over a decade and despite the pressures of Club Brugge, managed to advance to the knockout stages for the first time since 1999. Simone Inzaghi's side finished second with 10 points including a memorable 3-1 at home against Borussia Dortmund. Ciro Immobile continues to score goals with five from the group stages, with three coming against Dortmund, his former club. Lazio's chances of going further slims given the teams they will likely face but they have managed to go beyond the group stages which is great for the Italian side.

Loser: Barcelona

It was no surprise that Barcelona went through to the knockout stages but they will be disappointed of finishing second in their group behind Juventus. Both Barcelona and Juventus finished with 15 points but it was the Italian Champions that finished top of the group on head-to-head after winning against Ronald Koeman's side 3-0. This means that Barcelona will face one of the Premier League sides, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and PSG. So, they are more than likely to get a tough draw anyway, which will be tricky given how poor the Blaugrana have been this season.