Could this be a year the group stage misleads?

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti: The Spanish club are dreaming of a clean sweep.

The knock-out round of the Champions League often has an awful predictability to it. More repeats than the Christmas TV schedule. Finish second in your group and you go out in the next round. That’s what the lore says anyway, if not quite the law.

Over the past four seasons just five of the 32 runners-up have won through to the quarter-final stage. Last season the tournament was more lopsided than ever, symbolised by Schalke’s 9-2 thrashing at the hands of Real Madrid. The second-placed qualifiers managed a solitary win in their 16 matches and the overall scoreline was group winners 38 runners-up 13.