It has been a week of mismatches in the Champions League: Chelsea 6 Qarabag 0; Celtic 0 Paris St Germain 5; Feyenoord 0 Manchester City 4. Seven of the 16 group matches were won by margins of three goals or more, underlining José Mourinho’s point that, for the elite teams (and he no longer includes the English clubs in that category), the group stage has become little more than a “warm-up” for the knockout stage in the spring. There were a few truly compelling contests too: Liverpool 2 Sevilla 2; Tottenham Hotspur 3 Borussia Dortmund 1; even Barcelona 3 Juventus 0, despite the one-sided scoreline. It is the inequalities that stick out, though, and it speaks of something far more significant than tactical inadequacies, underperformance…

Source: The Times September 14, 2017 10:52 UTC