The curtain has closed on the Champions League and Europa League group stages with successful campaigns for the Spanish sides in both competitions.
Champions League
There was a perfect record for the Spanish clubs in the top tier European competition as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Sevilla and FC Barcelona all progressed from their groups.
It wasn’t the most auspicious start for Diego Simeone’s Atletico as they were thrashed 4-0 at holders Bayern Munich before a late Joao Felix goal snatched victory against FC Red Bull Salzburg.
The back-to-back games against Lokomotiv Moscow both ended in draws before Atleti held Bayern, ending the German’s 15-game winning run in the competition.
Atleti qualified for the knockout stages for the seventh time in eight seasons under Simeone, confirming their place with a 2-0 victory at Salzburg.
Madrid rivals Real were in the unthinkable position of failing to progress from the Champions League group stage for the first time ever after a damaging defeat to FC Shakhtar Donetsk left them needing to beat Borussia Monchengladbach to qualify.
With two Karim Benzema goals, Zinedine Zidane’s side continued their perfect record and somehow managed to win the group ahead of their German counterparts.
Having not won either of their first two games, Real’s chances remained in their hands with consecutive wins over Inter Milan, which proved crucial.
Sevilla finished second in their group behind Chelsea having started their campaign with a point and a clean sheet at Stamford Bridge before edging past Rennes.
Two successive victories over FC Krasnodar effectively sealed their place in the knockout rounds, the first coming from two goals down and with 10-men.
On the penultimate matchday they were humbled 4-0 at home by Chelsea with Olivier Giroud grabbing all four but finished the group stage with a comfortable win at Rennes.
As for Barcelona, they eased through their first five matches with maximum points including winning at Juventus and comprehensive victories away to Dynamo Kyiv and Ferencvaros.
This set up a winner-takes-all match with Juventus at the Nou Camp to decide the group winners with the Italian side having to win by three goals.
In a performance that mirrored their lacklustre La Liga displays, Messi and co slumped to a disappointing 3-0 defeat with who else but Cristiano Ronaldo netting twice from the spot to inflict Barcelona’s first home Champions League group stage loss since 2009.
Europa League
With La Liga providing the most winners (12) of the UEFA Cup and Europa League including seven winners in the past decade, it is no surprise 2020 is shaping up to be another successful year for Spanish clubs Granada, Real Sociedad and Villarreal in Europe’s second-tier competition.
In their first European campaign, Granada progressed in second place behind PSV Eindhoven, having come through two rounds of qualifying and a play-off match.
They started impressively with a comeback win in Holland against PSV before successive clean sheets against PAOK FC and AC Omonia saw them in pole position with seven points.
A second straight win against Cypriot side Omonia effectively secured safe passage to the last-32 before PSV exacted revenge with a 1-0 win in Spain.
The final round saw Granada only manage a draw in Greece to end the group stage one point behind the Dutch side who eased past Omonia 4-0.
Real Sociedad also finished as runners-up in their group, behind Napoli after a last-minute Willian José strike in Naples saw them pip AZ Alkmaar by a single point.
In neat symmetry, they begun their campaign with an injury-time goal away from home as Jon Bautista gave them all three points against Rijeka before losing to a single goal at home to Napoli.
Importantly, back-to-back matches against Alkmaar saw The Whites and Blues earn four points with no goals conceded but a disappointing home draw with Rijeka looked to have cost them a place in the knockout rounds.
However, José’s late strike – coupled with Alkmaar’s shock defeat to the bottom-placed Croatians – saw Sociedad progress through the Europa League group stage for the second time in the history.
Villarreal enjoyed an unbeaten and goal-laden group stage, only dropping points in Israel against Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
The Spanish side started with a madcap 5-3 win over Sivasspor having been pegged back from 2-0 up before a late Paco Alcácer double secured all three points.
An even later double from the Spanish striker helped Unai Emery’s men to an away victory against Qarabag before a four goal thrashing of Tel Aviv.
The Yellow Submarine were in control of the group and – despite being held in the return match – sealed top position with a 1-0 victory in Turkey over Sivasspor.
Their final dead rubber against Qarabag was postponed by Uefa, who will meet when both clubs find a solution – as the Azerbaijan side failed to have a minimum number of players due to Covid-19 cases within the squad.
Champions League Draw
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Atalanta v Real Madrid
Sevilla v Borussia Dortmund
Barcelona v Paris St-Germain
First legs: 16, 17, 23 and 24 February
Second legs: 9, 10, 16, 17 March
Europa League Draw
Granada v Napoli
Real Sociedad v Manchester United
RB Salzburg v Villarreal
First legs: 18 February
Second legs: 25 February