How did everything go for the teams involved? It's safe to say that it didn't go to plan for everyone, and our grades reflect that.
OH LEUVEN (A )
They might have only finished 12th, but sealing a spot in the knockout-phase playoffs would have been beyond the Belgian minnows' wildest dreams in their first-ever UWCL tournament. A win over FC Twente and draws with PSG, Paris FC and Roma set them up for success. They even managed to keep Barcelona and Arsenal to only three goals.
MANCHESTER UNITED (A)
A debut UWCL campaign for United, and what a debut it was. Three tight wins from their first three games against Valerenga, Atletico and PSG set up them for success, and a 1-0 win over Juventus on the final day meant that defeats to Wolfsburg and OL Lyonnes didn't matter too much. A paper-thin squad was able to seal a favorable playoff draw by finishing sixth, and that is some achievement.
BARCELONA (A-)
They topped the table, which was entirely expected given their 7-1 thrashing of Bayern on matchday 1, and a goal difference of plus-17 from their five wins showed their superiority. But a 1-1 draw with Chelsea suggests they could be vulnerable as the tournament goes on, and they are going to have to find a way to cope without injured star midfielders Patri and Aitana Bonmati.
OL LYONNES (A-)
The star power of OL Lyonnes has shone brightly with an average of three goals per game, and five wins from six. But they did need to come back from 3-0 down at halftime to Juventus to secure a 3-3 draw, so they've not had everything their own way. They are certainly one of the favorites to go all the way to the final.
CHELSEA (B )
In true Chelsea style, anything less than 100% isn't good enough, so two draws (against FC Twente and Barcelona) have marked them down in the grades. Otherwise, they scored 16 goals against Paris FC, St. Pölten and Roma, before a 2-1 comeback win against Wolfsburg sealed their spot in the top four on the final day.
BAYERN MUNICH (B )
A 7-1 hammering at the hands of Barcelona suggested that this would be a tough campaign, but Bayern turned things around to beat Juventus, Arsenal (with a superb comeback), PSG and Valerenga. Even a 2-2 draw against Atlético Madrid couldn't halt their progress. They will be tough opponents for anyone.
ARSENAL (B-)
The defending champions haven't looked great. They squeezed into the top half of the knockout-phase playoff draw by virtue of other teams' failures, but it was a shock that they didn't qualify automatically after lackluster defeats to OL Lyonnes and Bayern Munich. They did well to overcome Real Madrid 2-1 to avoid a worse fate, but were also lucky to play the lower-ranked OH Leuven, Benfica and FC Twente to get some much-needed points on the board.
VALARENGA (B-)
They fought for playoff qualification all the way to final matchday, which wouldn't have been on the cards at the start. A win over Roma was the Norwegian side's crowning glory, while they threw away a 2-0 lead over St. Pölten (ending in a 2-2 draw), and narrowly lost to Man United, Wolfsburg and Paris FC, before losing 3-0 to Bayern on the final day. But for that draw with St. Pölten, they could have gone through.
TWENTE (C )
A shock 1-1 draw with Chelsea on matchday 1 could have set the tone, but they suffered a 2-1 loss to Leuven in the next game, and that about sums things up. Two draws (the other came against Benfica) wasn't enough to avoid elimination before they nearly beatReal Madrid in the final game but drew 1-1.
REAL MADRID (C )
All looked good for Madrid after a 6-2 thrashing of Roma in the first game and a 2-1 win over PSG in the second. They stuttered with a 1-1 draw to Paris FC, before losing to Arsenal, but then things turned around against with a win over Wolfsburg on matchday 5. That meant all they needed to do was beat lowly Twente to seal an automatic spot. But they drew 1-1, and now face a tough knockout draw.
JUVENTUS (C)
Juve didn't make it out of the group stage last season behind Arsenal and Bayern, and they were too inconsistent again. They beat who they needed to beat: Benfica, St. Pölten and Atletico. And they almost did enough to beat Bayern (2-1 defeat, thanks to a stoppage-time goal), and OL Lyonnes (3-3 draw, having gone 3-0 up). But when it mattered, they lost 1-0 at home to Manchester United on the final day and failed to seal an automatic spot.
WOLFSBURG (C)
The two-time champions and four-time runners-up are looking to get back to the top of the game, but on the evidence of a 3-1 defeat to OL Lyonnes and 2-1 loss to Chelsea, they're not there yet. Wins over PSG, Valerenga and Man United were routine, but they really messed up by losing 2-0 to Real Madrid. Having been expected to seal an automatic place after matchday four, they now have an unfavorable spot in the playoffs after finishing ninth, though nobody will want to face them.
PARIS FC (C)
They did better than their local rivals PSG, but it was a very middling performance from the Parisian club. An opening 2-2 draw at home to OH Leuven, 4-0 loss to Chelsea and 2-0 defeat to Barcelona suggests they won't trouble too many in the playoffs, though they did hold Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw that required Caroline Weir to score a 98th-minute equalizer, in addition to beating Benfica and Valerenga.
ATLÉTICO MADRID (C)
Defeats to Juventus and Man United, as well as a 2-2 draw to Bayern, saw Atletico struggle at home. But their away form saw them beat FC Twente and St. Pölten, before losing 4-0 to OL Lyonnes, which was enough to seal a lower-half playoff draw. But they won't be worrying too many opponents.
ST. POLTEN (C)
They finished bottom of the table, but that was pretty much expected. The Swiss minnows managed to pick up a point with a comeback draw at Valerenga, while they stopped OL Lyonnes scoring more than three goals. Sadly, the same can't be said of the rest and they finished with a disappointing minus-25 goal difference from their six games.
BENFICA (D)
The Portuguese side never really got going after they took an early lead to Juventus in the first game, and fell to four defeats from six. Yes, they had a tough run of games against Juve, Arsenal, Paris FC and Barcelona, but their only points came from draws with FC Twente and PSG.
ROMA (F)
They are top of Serie A, but Roma were very poor in Europe and seem to be missing the spark of former manager Alessandro Spugna. They were hammered by Real Madrid (6-2) and Barcelona (4-0) in their opening games and never recovered. They should have picked up valuable points against Valerenga and OH Leuven, but only managed a draw against the latter, before a 6-0 drubbing to Chelsea saw their hopes of a playoff spot extinguished. A 6-1 win over lowly St. Pölten on the final day meant nothing.
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN (F)
What an awful campaign. Many would have tipped PSG to be pushing for an automatic qualification spot at the top of the table, but instead they lost four of their first four games (to Wolfsburg, Real Madrid, Man United and Bayern) before a 0-0 draw with minnows OH Leuven sealed their fate and they could only draw with Benfica on the final day with nothing at stake. They've had a lot of squad turnover, but that's no excuse for this level of performance.
