Ten things we learned this autumn in the Champions League

1. Sir Alex Ferguson would probably lead even a chosen group of salesmen from Manchester to the knockout stages.

2. German persistence and believing that nothing is lost are often ridiculed but Bayern still have winning mentality in spite of their misfortunate boss.

3. Real Madrid are travelling circus, the fun never ends and the group stage is just a chance to sell couple of more jerseys. They will face a serious team in spring and realize that sometimes a team simply must play football.

4. The Russians are here. Rubin lacked experience this season but next year it will be a year longer and they will make up for all they lost. That is one team no one wants to see in their group.

5. Rafa Benitez’s tricks fool no one. You can’t cheat all the time and in the same way, a little bit of innovation doesn’t hurt.

6. Mourinho will win the Champions League the day when Juventus get back to being a serious European club.

7. Never rule Milan out. When they find themselves in the situation that two matches decide if they will move on, no one is safe. The evident disproportion between titles won in Italy and Europe speaks in favour of that.

8. Scotts can’t play football.

9. A team can never be too young when led by Arsen Wenger. He even managed to make Tom Cruise play football proving that there is no ‘mission impossible’ for him.

10. Laurent Blanc managed to make a French team into a group of people ready to play football. If he gets in Domenech’s place, France will be World champions in 2014.

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