Champions League takeaways: Barcelona and Juventus shamefully miss out on Round of 16

The 2022-23 UEFA Champions League continued this week, with three of the biggest clubs in the world being officially eliminated. 

Among the other highlights from Matchday 5 were Red Bull Leipzig upsetting Real Madrid to hand the Spanish outfit its first loss of the season, Napoli and Bayern Munich retaining their perfect records, and 19-year-old Harvey Elliot becoming the first teenager to score in consecutive Champions League appearances for Liverpool. 

Here’s what else stood out from this week’s round of matches.

Barcelona eliminated before it even kicks a ball

Under normal circumstances, Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich would have been a marquee matchup between two European heavyweights. But this Champions League season has been far from normal for the Catalan club, who suffered a pair of losses and took just four points from its first four matches of the group stage. 

The nadir for Barca was reached before it even took to the pitch to take on the Bavarians in Wednesday’s Group C clash at Camp Nou. Inter Milan’s 4-0 home win over Viktoria Plzen earlier in the day officially eliminated the Spaniards, rendering their game against Bayern meaningless.

The Germans compounded Barcelona’s woes with a convincing 3-0 victory that was further proof of just how far the Spanish giants have fallen. Barcelona used to win and contend for European titles on a regular basis.

Now, it has been relegated to the role of an also-ran, as this marks the second consecutive year the team has failed to reach the knockout round of the Champions League. 

Wednesday’s exit from the competition could not have come at a worse time following a summer transfer window that saw the club invest heavily in new players despite being loaded down by massive financial debt.

The gamble to bring in players the calibre of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Jules Kounde didn’t pay off, and now the club must be content with slumming it in Europa League. 

Canadian content: Eustáquio scores in FC Porto’s win

It’s incredibly rare to see Canadian internationals face off in European soccer’s biggest and most prestigious club competition. But that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday in FC Porto’s comprehensive 4-0 win away to Belgium’s Club Brugge in Group B.

Midfielder Stephen Eustáquio, a key starter for Canada’s World Cup team, scored his first career Champions League goal and put in a masterful performance in the centre of the park before being subbed out after 77 minutes.  

After squandering a glorious scoring opportunity early in the first half, Eustáquio made amends on the hour mark when he beat goalkeeper Simon Mignolet on a rebound attempt from the edge of the six-yard box off a feed from Mehdi Taremi.

That goal gave Porto a commanding 3-0 lead against a Brugge side that went unbeaten and hadn’t conceded a single goal in its previous four matches of the group stage. 

Eustáquio’s Canadian teammate Tajon Buchanan started at fullback for Brugge, and he was one of the few bright spots for the Belgian champions with his probing runs down the right side.

Brugge had already advanced to the knockout round but this result, combined with Atlético Madrid’s 2-2 draw in the other Group B match, meant Porto also moved on to the Round of 16 at the expense of the Spanish club. 

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Edmonton native Alphonso Davies started and played the full 90 minutes in Bayern Munich’s 3-0 victory against Barcelona.

Magical Messi helps PSG advance to knockout round 

Paris Saint-Germain’s 7-2 home win over Maccabi Haifa in Group H action on Tuesday saw the French club equal its record for most goals in a single European game.

At the heart of it was the mercurial Lionel Messi, who torched the Israeli side for two goals and set up two others in a performance that showed there is still plenty of life in his legs. At 35 years and 123 days, Messi is the oldest player in UEFA Champions League history to score twice and collect two assists in a single game. 

The Argentine wizard opened the scoring in the 19th minute with an outside-of-the-foot finish, while his second goal right before halftime was a gorgeous curler into the corner after giving a few of Maccabi’s players the slip with his quick feet. That makes it 129 career goals in the Champions League for Messi, which puts him just 11 behind all-time leader Cristiano Ronaldo. 

How good has Messi been this season? Consider this: He’s the only player in Europe’s top five leagues to score 10 or more goals and tally 10 or more assists in all competitions, according to Opta. As of late, Messi has benefitted from coach Christophe Galtier’s switch to a 4-3-1-2 formation, allowing the team’s forwards to play with more freedom in the final third of the pitch.

Against Maccabi, Messi assisted on goals to Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, while he scored his first goal after being set up by Mbappé. It’ll be interesting to see if Galtier sticks with this new tactical system after PSG punched its ticket into the knockout round following Tuesday’s win. 

Juventus bows out in shame with loss to Benfica 

Juventus’ nightmare of a 2022-23 campaign continued on Tuesday with a 4-3 loss away to Benfica in Group H play, a result that eliminated the Italians from contention with one game remaining in the group stage. This marks the first time that the Bianconeri have not qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League since the 2013-14 season.

Three points from their first five games represents their worst ever showing at this stage of the competition. The Portuguese hosts stormed out to a 4-1 lead after 50 minutes, feasting on some comical defending and timid play by the Italians. Only after under-fire manager Massimiliano Allegri took youngsters Fabio Miretti, Matias Soule and Samuel Iling-Junior - each 19 years old – off the bench and inserted them into the game did Juve show some life.

In particular, Iling-Junior impressed after coming on, as the Englishman recorded an assist in his Champions League debut. Qualifying for next year’s tournament poses a challenge for Juve – at the moment, the Turin-based club sits eighth in the Serie A table, and has looked lifeless as it has trudged its way through the first 11 matches of the Italian league season. 

A once proud team with a rich domestic and European history has fallen on hard times. Juventus’ premature exit from the Champions League only underlines the fact that it is a side in desperate need of a roster rebuild over the course of the next two transfer windows.

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John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. TFC Republic can be found here.