The 2017-18 European club football season has reached its
end, and every club will now take a look at everything they have gone through
this season, and hopefully use their experiences this season to set them up
well for next season.
However, there were clearly some moments throughout the
season that stood out.
In chronological order, the following are, in my opinion,
the 10 most memorable moments of the 2017-18 season.
Mohamed
Salah signs for Liverpool (June 22, 2017)
When Salah joined the Reds from Roma for a fee of €42
million, not even the most ardent Liverpool fan could have expected the signing
to move the needle the way it did. This was understandable, considering that at
the time of the signing, Salah had only scored 57 career league goals in an eight-year
career.
However, he clearly was the breakout star of the season,
scoring 32 league goals, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and
Egypt to the World Cup, finishing second in the European Golden Shoe rankings,
winning various awards including African Footballer of the Year, Premier League
Player of the Season, and FWA Footballer of the Year, and emerging as a genuine
Ballon d’Or candidate.
Taking his transfer fee into account, this was easily the
signing of the season.
Neymar
signs for PSG (August 3, 2017)
It is one thing to break the world transfer record. It is
quite another to shatter it in the manner that PSG did when they signed Neymar
from Barcelona for €222 million, more than double the previous record set when
Paul Pogba signed for Manchester United for €105 million just one year earlier.
In an extremely successful four-year stint with the
Blaugrana, the Brazilian superstar won six major trophies, including the 2015
Champions League. He also was the top scorer of the tournament that year, and
domestically, he scored 68 league goals in 123 games for Barça.
Unfortunately for him, his debut season in Paris was cut
short when he broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot in a match
against Marseille in February.
Borussia
Dortmund 4-4 Schalke (November 25, 2017)
This was probably the most enthralling league match of
the season. It had it all: it was a derby, it featured a comeback from 4-0
behind, a superstar received a red card, and it was laden with goals.
Dortmund led 4-0 at halftime through goals scored by
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mario Götze, and Raphaël Guerreiro, as well as a
Benjamin Stambouli own goal.
However, in the second half, aided by an Aubameyang red
card, Schalke scored four goals to leave the derby with the most improbable of
draws.
Philippe
Coutinho signs for Barcelona (January 6, 2018)
It didn’t take long for Barça to replace Neymar with
another Brazilian star.
Throughout the season, Coutinho had been linked with a
move to the Catalan club from Liverpool. In fact, in the previous off-season,
Liverpool had rejected a ₤72 million bid for Coutinho from Barcelona. This
drove Coutinho to submit a transfer request, and this request was fulfilled in
January, when Barça signed him for ₤105 million.
Coutinho went on to play an important role in the second
half Barça’s Double-winning campaign, immediately becoming a regular starter
and fitting in seamlessly.
Roma
3-0 Barcelona (April 10, 2018)
In the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal,
Barça took Roma apart, winning 4-1. This meant that in order to advance to the
semifinals, Roma had to win the second-leg match by four or more goals, or 3-0,
which would have put the Giallorossi through on away goals. Heading into the
second leg, almost everyone assumed that the tie was all but decided, but that
was not the case.
An early Edin Džeko goal pulled Roma within two, with
much of the match still to be played. Then, in the 58th minute, Roma won a
penalty, which was duly converted by Daniele De Rossi. Finally, in the 82nd
minute, Konstantinos Manolas forever etched his name into Roma’s history books
by scoring the goal which completed the incredible comeback and knocked out the
team favoured to win it all.
As if that weren’t enough, De Rossi and Manolas had
scored own goals in the first leg, making their goals in the second leg even
more dramatic.
Arsène
Wenger announces departure from Arsenal (April 20, 2018)
A day that seemed as though it would never come finally
did.
After years of much pressure from Arsenal fans, Wenger
announced that he would end his 22-year stint at the helm of the Gunners at the
end of the season.
Wenger left Arsenal with something of a mixed record:
he won 10 major trophies during his time at Arsenal and led the club to an
unbeaten Premier League campaign in 2004, but also presided over a nine-year
trophy drought, and in 19 Champions League campaigns, only made it to the
semifinals twice.
Andrés Iniesta announces departure from
Barcelona (April 27, 2018)
Wenger was not the only long-serving,
iconic figure to leave his club this season. In fact, Iniesta’s departure caused
even more of a stir, as he is probably a top-10 player of all time, Spain’s
greatest-ever player, and perhaps the greatest central midfielder in the
history of football.
In an unbelievable
16-year career at Barça, Iniesta played 674 matches for the Blaugrana,
including 442 in La Liga. During this time, he won nine La Liga titles, six
Copa del Rey titles, and four Champions Leagues. He was also named to the FIFA
FIFPro World XI nine times, as well as the UEFA Team of the Year six times.
Iniesta’s next career
stop will be J1 League club Vissel Kobe.
Levante
5-4 Barcelona (May 13, 2018)
With two matches left to be played in the La Liga season,
Barcelona had yet to taste defeat. Over the last 40 years, only on four
occasions had a team from one of the four major leagues completed an unbeaten
league campaign, and none of them were La Liga clubs.
However, aided by Barça coach Ernesto Valverde’s fateful
decision to bench Lionel Messi, as well as a remarkable hat-trick scored by
Emmanuel Boateng, Levante ruined Barcelona’s pursuit of an unbeaten season.
Barça thus missed out on joining the likes of Perugia
1979, AC Milan 1992, Arsenal 2004, and Juventus 2012, though they did secure a
league and cup double.
Lazio
2-3 Inter Milan (May 20, 2018)
The race for the fourth and final Champions League spot
from Serie A came down to the last day of the season. Lazio needed a draw to
qualify for the 2018-19 Champions League, while for Inter, only a win would do.
After 78 minutes, Lazio led 2-1 and were in a very
comfortable position. That was when all hell proceeded to break loose.
Inter Milan earned a penalty, which was converted by
Mauro Icardi. Shortly after that, Lazio midfielder Senad Lulić received a red
card. Two minutes later, Matías Vecino put Inter 3-2 up, a lead they would
never surrender. To top it all off, in the third minute of stoppage time, Lazio
defender Patric received his team’s second red card of the match. In a truly
astonishing final-day clash, it was the Nerazzurri who came out on top, and
thus qualified for the Champions League.
Real
Madrid 3-1 Liverpool (May 26, 2018)
The 2018 Champions League final will surely be remembered
as one of the all-time iconic matches in club football history. It contained a
spectacular goal scored by Real’s Gareth Bale, two dreadful errors by Liverpool
goalkeeper Loris Karius, and an intriguing tactical battle between coaches
Zinedine Zidane and Jürgen Klopp.
However, most importantly, it ended with Real completing
their “three-peat”, sealing their place as football immortals and confirming
them as probably the greatest club team of all time.
No team had ever won back-to-back European titles, let
alone three in a row, since the tournament began its existence in its current
form in the 1999-2000 season. This current Real Madrid team has not only broken
new ground, but gone so far into this new ground that I believe no team will
match its feats for at least another 50 years.
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