To say that this has been a truly remarkable season full of twists and turns would be an understatement. So much has happened during the 2019-20 European club football season that it is almost impossible to choose just 10 moments which stood out.
However, I have proceeded to do so. As you can probably imagine, so bizarre has this season been (both on the field and away from it) that some of the moments selected have never been seen before and will probably never happen again.
Antoine Griezmann signs for Barcelona (July 12, 2019)
Barcelona made a clear statement of intent during the transfer window by signing Griezmann for €120 million from Atlético Madrid. It was a transfer which at the time made Barça the favourites to win the Champions League for the sixth time.
Griezmann's debut season at Camp Nou, however, did not go according to plan. His nine league goals were his fewest in eight years and his form throughout the season was inconsistent. His Barcelona team also ended the season without any titles for the first time since 2008.
The impending departures of Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi, however, will make Griezmann the leader of Barça's attack next season; a role in which he thrived at Atlético. It remains to be seen if he can return to the form in which he struck dread into the hearts of opposing defenders all over Spain and beyond.
Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 Bayern Munich (November 2, 2019)
Bayern Munich started the season in abysmal form. They dropped points in Bundesliga matches against teams they were expected to beat handily such as Hertha Berlin, Hoffenheim, and Augsburg.
It all came to a head when Bayern were destroyed by Eintracht Frankfurt to cap off a run in which they picked up just four points in four matches and conceded 10 goals while scoring six.
However, as it turned out, this crushing defeat might very well have been the best thing that could have happened to Bayern because it led to the firing of head coach Niko Kovač. After Kovač was replaced by Hans-Dieter Flick, Bayern's season took off and they never looked back thereafter.
Ernesto Valverde fired as Barcelona head coach (January 13, 2020)
Barça made a somewhat surprising decision when they chose to fire Valverde. While he had not always delivered at the level which many had expected, he had up to that point done well enough that most assumed his job was safe.
However, a slump which saw Barça win just one match in five saw Valverde lose his job. This was seen as something of a risk, given the fact that despite the slump, they were still top of La Liga and in contention for the Champions League title.
Valverde would be replaced by Quique Setién - a move which would go on to have disastrous effects on Barça's season. Setién was neither able to properly utilize his players nor connect with them; this led to Barça's finishing the season with no trophies and Setién's own firing.
Serie A suspended (March 9, 2020)
Just like all other areas of life all over the planet, the football world was not spared from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Italy was the first European country to suffer a mass Covid-19 outbreak. Thus, it came as no surprise when the Italian government suspended the league as well as all other professional sports leagues across the country.
As the virus spread across Europe, all other major leagues as well as the Champions League and Europa League would soon follow suit. The season had now truly entered uncharted waters.
Liverpool 2-3 Atlético Madrid (March 12, 2020)
This match was notable for two different reasons. The first was that it marked one of the most impressive upset victories of the season as Atlético stunned a Liverpool team in pursuit of back-to-back Champions League titles, knocking them out in the round of 16.
However, this match also served as a major catalyst for the eventual suspension of the tournament. It would eventually be discovered that the match was the cause of 41 Covid-19 deaths while also accelerating the spread of the virus in the UK.
Not surprisingly, the tournament would be suspended shortly after and not return until August.
Bundesliga resumes (May 16, 2020)
Germany was one of the European countries in which the Covid-19 outbreak subsided earliest. Thus, the Bundesliga was the first of the four major European football leagues to resume play.
With every match held in an empty stadium and with appropriate social distancing protocols in place, great care was taken to prevent a resurgence of the virus which may have been caused by unsafe holding of matches. It would not be long before other leagues would follow suit.
Bayern Munich would win all their league matches after the restart and won the league title by a large margin; a remarkable turnaround after their slow start to the season.
Chelsea 2-1 Manchester City (June 26, 2020)
This match will be remembered not for what happened on the field, but instead for what happened to a team not playing in it because of the implications of the result.
A penalty scored by Willian ensured that City would not be able to catch Liverpool at the summit of the Premier League. It was Liverpool's first league title in 30 years.
Such had been the magnitude of their drought that most Liverpool fans had longed for a league title far more than a Champions League title in spite of the fact that it is the less prestigious of the two honours.
Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich (August 14, 2020)
By this point, Bayern had clearly established themselves as the dominant force of the club football world, while Barça were in complete disarray after having tamely surrendered their La Liga title to Real Madrid. However, no one could have anticipated what was about to ensue.
In this Champions League quarterfinal, Bayern produced a performance for the ages as the Bavarian club made Lionel Messi and company look like complete amateurs. It was Barça's heaviest loss since 1951.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, this result also led to the firing of Setién from his position. It also set the stage for one other moment to be mentioned shortly.
Paris Saint-Germain 0-1 Bayern Munich (August 23, 2020)
Bayern completed their dominant treble-winning season by beating PSG in front of an empty Estádio da Luz. Just to rub it in for the Paris club, ex-PSG player Kingsley Coman scored the only goal.
The victory completed Bayern's second treble after having won it in 2013 under Jupp Heynckes. Regardless of what he does next at Bayern, Flick has forever etched his name into club lore.
Bayern unquestionably enter the 2020-21 season as the team to beat, especially given the fact that they are the only team in the modern era to have won every single match of a Champions League campaign.
Lionel Messi announces departure from Barcelona (August 25, 2020)
The season's final turn of events was not completely unexpected; however, it was perhaps the most noteworthy and game-changing of them all.
After much speculation, Messi finally confirmed that he planned to depart the club at which he had become perhaps the greatest player of all time. Messi had played for Barça since 2004, scoring over 600 goals and winning four Champions League titles.
Manchester City, PSG, and Inter Milan are the teams which are reportedly leading the chase for the Argentine. At the moment, it appears that City are the most likely to land him and thus reunite him with former coach Pep Guardiola.
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