Three key takeaways from the Champions League group stage

But the group stage hasn't merely finished for the 2023-24 competition. It's finished altogether, as the Champions League is moving toward a new group-free format for future iterations of the tournament.

Here's what we've learned from the final group stage of the UEFA Champions League.

Pedigree isn't everything in this competition.  A group like Group A--Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen--looks straightforward on paper. Bayern and Man United are big names with plenty of history and nine Champions League trophies between them, while Galatasaray and Copenhagen, hailing from Turkey and Denmark respectively, are often viewed as European minnows.

But Group A wound up being anything but straightforward. While Bayern won it, Man United wound up finishing last after a string of wasteful performances. It was FC Copenhagen who rose through the ranks and took Man United's expected place in the knockout rounds. Viewing Copenhagen--a team who dominates the Danish league and often makes Champions League appearances--as an underdog against a Man United team struggling to string two wins together feels awfully silly in hindsight. We probably should've seen Copenhagen's rise, and United's fall, coming from a long way off.

Two teams made group stage history.  By finishing the group stage with a perfect 6-0-0 record, both Real Madrid and Manchester City have entered an elite fraternity: they're just the twelfth and thirteenth teams to achieve the feat.

'Coefficients' are shifting. Regular viewers of the Champions League know that different countries send different numbers of teams to the competition--this year, England sent four, Portugal sent three and France sent two. But how do those numbers get decided? By averaging the success of a country's performances over the course of the competition against the number of teams it entered. That figure is known as a nation's coefficient, and by winning the Champions League last season, England increased its coefficient and secured the maximum number of spots this season.

Next year, the top nations in Europe will be able to send five teams to the Champions League instead of four. Many assumed that England would be the nation to secure all five, since its teams have done so well in the Champions League in the past. But with two of England's four Champions League teams--Man United and Newcastle--eliminated in round one, England's coefficient has taken a massive hit. England now sits behind Germany, Spain and Italy in the race for five spots next season.

That's bad news for teams like Spurs, who were counting on that extra spot. But it's even worse for Man United and Newcastle themselves. They're both in the running for fifth in the Premier League...but their own poor performances in Europe may mean that fifth won't be enough for them to qualify for Europe once again.