8. Real Madrid
Real winning Group G by a three-point margin is fooling nobody. This is nowhere close to the team emphatically victorious over Liverpool in last seasonās final.
The winners of the last three tournaments in a row and four out of the past five seem to have run their course. Selling a 30-something Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus in the summer was bad business, even at nearly Ā£100 million, based on how turgid Los Blancos have been in front of goal since.
Mercurial Karim Benzema and made-of-glass Gareth Bale havenāt merely struggled to carry the scoring load sans Ronaldo. Theyāve collapsed underneath it.
Their issues led to Julen Lopetegui getting the boot. Former player Santiago Solari has picked up some results since he took over, but he has been unable to eliminate the embarrassing setbacks altogether.
Eibar putting three past Los Merengues in La Liga back in late-November gave Solari an ominous reminder of the size of the task ahead of him. The challenge is just as great in the competition Real have owned.
Octoberās 1-0 loss in Moscow sounded alarm bells about the holders. CSKA improving on the result with a 3-0 triumph at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday offered a scathing take on the feeble depth in Solariās squad.
Heāll count on pushing a familiar 11 to the limit, particularly the perfectly balanced midfield trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. They formed the backbone of Realās three-peat, but this team seems ripe for a fall much earlier this season.