The 66th edition of the biggest tournament of Europe (29th after being renamed) has been quite dramatic to be very honest. The 2020-21 UEFA Champions League has almost come to an end. The world will be spectating an all-English final on the 30th May at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
The London based football team Chelsea F.C. will be facing Manchester F.C. This indeed is going to be a very crucial match for both of the teams. Chelsea F.C. has reached the finals of the UCL after a really long time after they won the competition for the first time in 2012. On the other hand, it is a lifetime opportunity for Manchester City F.C. as they haven’t won the UCL ever in their history. Also, this is the very first time they have reached the finals. No doubt, the nerves will be wrecking during this match. Specially after Chelsea beat Manchester City after scoring at the very last minute of the game in the 35th round of EPL, which was also an away game for them. Chelsea took the game with a 1-2 score in the scoreboard. The world is waiting to see how it ends in the UCL!
As it was mentioned before that this season was quite dramatic. The 13th time UCL winner Real Madrid C.F. lost to Chelsea in the semis. They haven’t reached the finals since 2017-18. The champions of the last season didn’t even qualify for the semi finals this season. Another 6th time winner Liverpool F.C. lost to Real Madrid in the quarters. It indeed was a pathetic season for the Catalan club F.C. Barcelona. As we know, Barcelona failed to reach the finals since 2014-15 after they won the competition for the 5th time beating Juventus. But this season was harder for them as they didn’t even qualify for the quarter finals! Also they have lost the chance of winning Copa Del Rey and are still fighting to get the top spot in La-Liga.
Now, the most important question after all these, who scored most goals in Champions League this season? Well, it is Erling Braut Haaland, the Norwegian striker from the German club Borussia Dortmund has scored 10 goals this season and is now at the top of the list. Following him, the young sensation, Kylian Mbappe, has scored 8 times this season. Well, the 3rd place has quite a few stars. Alvaro Morata (Juventus), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Neymar Jr. (PSG), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool), Olivier Giroud (Chelsea) & Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla) have scored 6 goals each.
Dramatically enough, the 2nd top scorer in the UCL history, Lionel Messi, who has scored 120 goals in total, scored only 5 goals this season and taking the 4th spot along with 5 others. Robert Lewandowski, the top scorer of previous season, is also with Messi this season. Talking about the top scorer of UCL history, Cristiano Ronaldo, scored only 4 goals this season and is in the 5th position, sharing the spot with 10 others! Juventus also failed to reach the quarter finals this year.
The most dramatical fact is that, none of the 2 greatest player of the generation, Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo, played in the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League. This happened last in 2004-05 season. After that season, 2020-21 experienced quarter finals without these 2 legends.
Indeed, this was an interesting season. All eyes are on the 2 English clubs now. The world can’t wait to have their new UCL winner!
