The European football season concluded on the 10th of June with the Champions League final, a match which saw Manchester City complete a memorable treble. They go down in history as only the second English team to win a treble, following the achievements of the city rivals Manchester United back in 1999.
The other European finals went the way of Sevilla and West Ham in two entertaining finals. Other highlights this season included the drama from the Bundesliga on the last day as well as Napoli running away with the title in Italy. In this article, we will break down the best of the action from each of the top competitions over the course of the season.
European Football
The Champions League always dominates the conversation when it comes to European football, at least until the latter rounds, when interest in the Europa and Conference Leagues picks up, and in this case it was no different.
The group stages saw Napoli win Group A ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea won their group ahead of Milan, a surprise considering their poor domestic season.
Real Madrid, unsurprisingly, won their group and Manchester City made easy work of winning Group G. There were a few surprises though as Atletico Madrid finished last in Group B, resulting in elimination from all European competitions.
In Group C, Barcelona failed to make it through, finishing third and thereby entering the Europa League. Tottenham did well to win their group and Benfica also managed the same, getting the better of PSG and Juventus along the way.
The drama only intensified in the knockout rounds as Bayern got the better of PSG, once again ending the hopes of the French Champions early. Real Madrid thrashed Liverpool to win 5-2 at Anfield in an impressive performance and, elsewhere, Milan, Inter, Napoli, Chelsea, Benfica and Manchester City all made it through.
The quarter finals saw both Milan teams navigate their way through as well as Real Madrid and Manchester City, the latter recording an impressive win over Bayern Munich.
In the semi-finals, Inter beat rivals AC Milan and Manchester City put in another impressive performance as they swept Real Madrid aside. The final was a tense affair but Manchester City prevailed, the English team winning 1-0 to confirm their first-ever Champions League trophy.
The second tier competition, the Europa League, started with a group stage which didn’t really result in too many surprises apart from Lazio not making it through. Once the knockout rounds start, things get a lot more interesting as teams from the Champions League drop down into this competition, including Barcelona this year. In fact, one of the highlights of the tournament was witnessing Manchester United take on Barcelona in the second tier competition, an unusual concept.
Despite getting the better of Barcelona, United lost out to serial Europa League experts Sevilla. The semi-finals saw the Spanish team progress at the expense of Juventus and Roma progressed in place of Leverkusen. The final itself was a tense, bad tempered affair that required penalties to separate the two teams, with Sevilla winning their favourite tournament yet again.
The UEFA Conference League is a new concept, this was only the second season that it has been played, with AS Roma winning the inaugural edition last season. This time around, after a long and drawn out group stage, we ended with the likes of Fiorentina, West Ham, AZ Alkmaar and Nice getting through. The final ended up being between Fiorentina and West Ham with another action packed match going the way of the English team, a first trophy for manager David Moyes and a special occasion for the London team.
English Premier League
As always, the top division in England provided countless memorable moments from start to finish, with drama at both ends of the table. At the start of the season, many were questioning whether Erling Haaland or Darwin Nunez would be the better striking purchases, but it soon became apparent that the Manchester City forward was going to make a better start to his career in England.
He took the league by storm, breaking multiple records. He scored 36 goals this season, scored 20 before January and scored three hat tricks in the shortest amount of time. The form of the striker went some way to ensuring that City had an excellent end to the season as they came from a decent way behind Arsenal to overtake them and eventually win the league title with games to spare.
The second leg of their treble was complete when they got the better of Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley and their place in history was guaranteed when they beat Inter in Istanbul.
The one other piece of silverware in England went to Manchester United, as they beat Newcastle in the EFL Cup final in February. This meant that the Red Devils can say they had a reasonably good season and are heading in the right direction as they won a trophy, reached another final and finished in the top four.
Arsenal’s season was a case of so close yet so far as they looked like they were going to win the league for the first time in twenty years before folding and ending up second. With no trophy at the end of the season to hold up, they can be pleased but will be left wanting more. The final team to finish in the top four was Newcastle, who showed massive improvement since their takeover and with manager Eddie Howe at the helm they are heading in the right direction.
Liverpool recovered from a terrible start to the season to finish fifth, missing out on Champions League for next season in an under par campaign. The final European places were taken by Brighton and Aston Villa with both these teams having excellent seasons, overachieving with the players and budgets both have.
In an unusual turn of events, all three promoted teams survived in the Premier League this season. Fulham had the best of all three, finishing in tenth place with a remarkable 52 points. Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest took different approaches to survival with the former not spending much money and the latter having a crazy couple of transfer windows. Both survived, however, with neither requiring last day drama to avoid the drop.
The biggest disappointment of the season was surely Chelsea, who, despite the huge outlay on new players and getting through three managers, could only finish in twelfth place. Relegation was decided on the last day with Everton escaping the drop yet again but Leicester City and Leeds United dropping down along with Southampton. The drop is especially painful for Leicester as they were actually league champions in 2015!
Bundesliga Drama
The German top division is certainly one of the most entertaining year in, year out and this was no exception. Dortmund had the chance to end Bayerns dominance as the destiny of the title was in their hands but they were unable to win their last match, meaning that Bayern just managed to win yet another title.
Union Berlin delighted many neutrals with their strong season and they managed to finish in fourth place and will experience Champions League football next season. RB Leipzig ended the season strongly, finishing in third place as well as winning the end of season DFB Pokal Cup.
Parisian Dominance in Ligue 1
Despite losing seven matches this season, Paris SG still managed to win another league title in Ligue 1. That will be little consolation for those associated with the club though, as it is European glory that they really covet.
This summer, a number of stars are set to leave the club, including Lionel Messi and potentially Kylian Mbappe, so it remains to see whether they retain their dominance next season. Lens and Marseille both put up a decent fight and were rewarded with Champions League Football. The likes of Lyon and Nice had underwhelming seasons but Toulouse will play in Europe next season thanks to a cup success, despite finishing in 13th place.
Italian Serie A
Napoli ended their long wait for a league title, running away with this season’s Serie A title. The celebrations carried on for days in the southern city as everyone associated with the club revelled in the success. Eventually, it turns out that the win was by a sixteen point margin over second placed Lazio, a truly astonishing achievement.
The two Milan teams joined Napoli and Lazio in the top four, with Inter winning the Coppa Italia as well as reaching the Champions League final this season. It was another season of turmoil for Juventus as they were docked points for financial irregularities, which meant they finished in seventh place in the league table. Atalanta and AS Roma will play in the Europa League next season.
Spanish La Liga
This was Barcelona’s year in La Liga as they won the title by ten points, a comfortable title triumph. Despite their financial issues and not having a good season in Europe, where they failed to make it out of the Champions League group and were subsequently eliminated by Manchester United from the Europa League.
Defence was key to their league success this time around as they only conceded 20 league goals all season and Robert Lewandowski fired them to glory with his goals at the other end of the pitch, ending as the leagues’ top goalscorer in the process. Real Madrid finished second, just one point ahead of Atletico Madrid, with surprise package Real Sociedad joining them in the top four and playing Champions League football next season.
Villareal, Betis and Osasuna finished in the other European places and Sevilla will also be playing in the Europa League as they won it this season. Barcelona won the Super Cup and Real Madrid got their hands on the Copa del Rey.
Rest of Europe
In Portugal, it was Benfica that managed to hold on to first place and win the league title, two points ahead of FC Porto who had a strong end to the season. Braga finished in third spot with Sporting Lisbon in fourth, with the rest of the teams a long way behind the top four.
In Scotland, Celtic dominated once again, winning the league by 13 points from Rangers. Manager Ange Postecoglu’s stay in Scotland was a short and impressive one as his efforts were noted in the Premier League and he takes over at Tottenham next season.
The Scottish Cup also went the way of Celtic. The Turkish Super Lig was disrupted due to the earthquake that took place and two teams pulled out of the division altogether. Galatasaray ended the season as champions, with Fenerbahce in second spot. Feyenoord won the Dutch title for only the second time this century with PSV in second spot and Ajax finishing in third place.
With no World Cup or European Championship taking place this summer, it will be a quiet summer for Football fans. An international round of fixtures will take place in June, with Nations League and Qualification matches taking place before players and coaches can head off for a well deserved rest.
There are youth tournaments taking place but much of the attention will be focused on the transfer market as fans look to see who their club will be signing. The player and manager merry-go-round is likely to pick up steam soon and there is a new league for top European clubs to compete with.
The cash rich Saudi league has already managed to poach a number of players from Europe such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N’golo Kante and others, especially those nearing the end of their careers, are tipped to join them. Jude Bellingham has already moved to Real Madrid at a cost of over €100 Million and Kylian Mbappe is tipped to leave Paris SG.
Chelsea will need to sell some players before they can buy due to their high recent expenditure and the likes of Manchester United and Newcastle United will certainly be in the market for more players.
Barcelona will be trying to twist some more financial rules to be able to afford some new additions and it remains to be seen what sort of team PSG put out next year, with some big names expected to leave. For the time being, we can sit back and relax for a few weeks before the next football season kicks into action in August.