The Champions league second round has come and gone, we now have our quarter finalists but what lessons did the round come with.
1. Manchester City Is Not Yet A 'Guardiola Team'
The Game against Monaco in France only needed to end for Pep to become the most successful manager in Champions league history after 100 games, he overtook Louis Van Gaal. This was cold comfort as City also grabbed an unwanted record of not keeping a clean sheet in the past 11 European games.
The most worrying is the fact that a Guardiola team has now exited Europe's elite competition at the second round stage. The hand writing is on the wall and it's clear that there is a whole lot of job to do for the Spanish Manager.
2. Leicester City's Performance Is A Food For Thought For The Arsenal Board
The fact that the reigning English champions turned around to sack a manager who did the 'Unthinkable' for them less than one year ago is the first point, but most importantly the Champions league newcomers have done more this season than Arsenal has managed in seven years. The Gunners last reached the last 8 in 2010. The overall report card of Mr. Wenger in the competition is not actually encouraging with just one final appearance against Barcelona in 2006 and one Semifinal appearance against Manchester United in 2009 in his 20 year spell at the North London club.
3. The 'Big Guns' Should Fear Leicester's Sting
Gianluigi Buffon rightly said on Tuesday that Juve would like to avoid the reigning English Champions in Friday's draw. Just like last season nobody gave the foxes a chances and the same trend is happening in the UCL this season, but apparently wisdom comes with age and Buffon has spoken out of wisdom. The truth is that since the sack of Claudio Ranieri Leicester City now mysteriously look like the force the were last season and if they are back to that Frequency of radiation there might be no stopping them.
4. The Next Transfer Window Will Be A 'Very Busy' One
The emergence of young, fresh and previously overlooked talent has been on show not just in the just concluded round but since the start of the Champions league. Bayer Leverkusen sure have in their ranks what a lot of clubs in Europe need and it's a shame they didn't go through, so do Monaco, Barcelona's wonder boy who got the wonder goal. The list is indeed a very long one.
5. Europe Belongs To Spain
3/8 of the teams in the last eight are teams from Spain and Spanish teams have won the cup in the past three season, Juventus is the only non Spanish team to feature in the Champions league finals since 2014. Sevilla's narrow loss to a spirited Leicester made sure La liga teams did not make up half of the teams in the last 8. Therefore the saying that 'Europe belongs to Spain' is a genuine one and you can bet on a Spanish team or two getting to the Finals.
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