Not a bad day for English clubs in the Champions League. The last round of the league phase is completed.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa finished in the top 8, meaning they're going directly to the next stage without having to participate in the play-offs. This is a success particularly for Villa, who beat Celtic 4-2 today and grabbed the last, 8th place in the direct promotion zone.
Man City was outside the playoffs before today, but they didn't disappoint their fans and beat Club Brugge 3-1 at home. The first half wasn't the most impressive on their part, but I'd rather have them playing ugly and winning than playing nicely and losing points.
I think Manchester City felt a short period of like a punch in their gut when they conceded a goal right before halftime. A loss and even a draw would have knocked them out from the Champions League and that is why I think that goal against them released a shock.
But Brugge still had something to fight for as the risk was to have a goal fest against them and then Zagreb could have taken their position as they managed to beat AC Milan against all expectations and Milan therefore has to go through the playoffs. Musah's red card wasn't the smartest move obviously. he should have slowed down after he received the yellow 8 minutes before that. But then Zagreb saw a real chance and it could have become a real showdown if Zagreb scored another goal and City scored another goal, then it would have only been one goal difference between Brugge and Zagreb.
But anyway, nobody thought that Zagreb would end up with 11 points anyway after they got destroyed 9-2 in the first game against Bayern.