By making their first qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League on Wednesday 8 December, RB Salzburg accomplished a historic feat for Austrian football. Until then a novice at this level, Austria has invited itself into a “European top 16” mainly made up, in recent years, of clubs from the five major championships (England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy).
Sporting Portugal, Benfica and Ajax are also among the qualifiers. Four representatives out of sixteen from so-called “minor” championships, the total may seem ridiculous. It is actually rather high, since the figure is the highest since the 2017-2018 season (Basel, Shakhtar, Besiktas and Porto).
In recent years, the “Big Ears Cup” has become akin to a closed club, almost exclusively reserved for the teams of the biggest championships. Last year, only Porto survived the group stage. In 2019-2020, it is even all of the eighth finalists who came from the European top 5.
1 – All the teams qualified for the round of 16 of the 2019/20 Champions League come from the 5 major European leagues, a 1st in the history of the competition. Powerful. pic.twitter.com/8S9kI7mbjd
– OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 11, 2019
In reality, the trend is especially exacerbated by the latest reform. Since 2018, the biggest championships (Germany, England, Spain and Italy) have four automatic qualifiers in the group stages. In other words, half of the 32 competing teams come from these four countries. This allows them, mechanically, to have a large number of reps in eighths.
The contrast is striking: over the period 2012-2018, an average of 8.3 championships placed a club at this stage of the competition. It was not uncommon to see Russian, Ukrainian, Swiss or Turkish teams in knockout matches. Since 2018, this average has fallen to 6.8. And again, it was raised by this 2021-2022 vintage.
Can this year mark a turning point? Can this increased presence of clubs from minor championships be read as a lasting element? We won’t go that far, but these results show that qualitative football exists outside the most publicized leagues.
Ajax and his mad attack (20 goals scored, highest total in the competition) or Salzburg, and his uninhibited game, are good examples. Even if it did not lead to a qualification, the course of Sherriff Tiraspol (Moldova), notably victorious against Real Madrid, is part of this lineage. All the more tasty as Benfica and Salzburg had to go through play-offs to reach the hens.
These, too, took advantage of the weaknesses of renowned teams. This group stage was thus catastrophic for Germany, only represented by Bayern in the spring after the bankruptcies of Dortmund, Leipzig and Wolfsburg. It’s hardly better on the Iberian side, where only Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid got out of the first phase. Exit therefore Seville and Barcelona, yet in affordable groups, before the result of Atalanta-Villarreal postponed to Thursday. If the Yellow Submarine is eliminated, Spain will lament their worst season since 2011-2012.
If reaching the eighth represents a good performance, there is no question of making an end for the Portuguese, Austrian and Dutch clubs. The quarterfinals are possible given their level of play, but only three clubs “outside the top 5” have reached it: Porto, twice, and Ajax. The Amsterdam team, flamboyant in 2018-2019, had reached the semi-finals of the competition. A performance achieved by eliminating Real Madrid and Juventus. Like a good snub to unfavorable statistics.