Nominations anybody? Here are mine: Biggest surprises: Newcastle United, Montpelier, Borussia Moechengladbach, Malaga Biggest disappointments: Liverpool, Inter, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen, Villareal
Surprised you didn't mention Juventus as one of the biggest surprises of the 2011-2012 season. After back-to-back disappointing 7th place league finishes, Juventus are currently in 1st place in Serie A and in the final of their domestic cup, Coppa Italia. On top of all that, they are currently unbeaten after 33 league games and boast the best defensive record in all of Europe, 18 goals conceded in 33 games.
I didn't forget....just didn't think that it was that suprising. There's been a surprise quarterfinalist in the Champions League just about every year (Shaktar Donetsk in 10/11, CSKA Moscow in 09/10, Fenerbache in 07/08, etc.) and APOEL benefitted from two extremely lucky draws, ending up in the weakest CL group (Porto, Shatakar Donetsk, Zenit, APOEL) and getting Lyon in the round of 16 (whom they only beat in the lottery that is penalty kicks).
The sum of the four club's coefficients in APOEL's group was 261.660. The sum for Arsenal's group was 250.612, which is lower than APOEL's.
Biggest surprise of the 11-12 season Borussia Dortmund Who expected them to win back-to-back titles? It certainly looked like Bayern were going to run away with the title when the season started, and for a while; they did. The last time a club other than Bayern won 2 straight titles was back in 94-95/95-96...and that club was BvB. Biggest disappointment of the 11-12 season Borussia Dortmund Though no one expected them to be crowned again this season I also do not think most people expected them to end last in what was considered a "favorable" group when the draw was made. My two cents...
I'm not taking anything away from Dortmund, because I really like what's coming out of that organization in recent years. But, they just won the league last year. Is it that much of a surprise to think they couldn't do it again? I'm sure when the season began Bayern were favorites, but they were probably favored next. No offense (at all), but that wasn't that big of a suprise, for me at least.
No worries, not a big deal. It may not have been a big surprise to people that do not follow the BuLi very closely but to be fair, not many expected Dortmund to do it again. With the lose of Sahin and the way Bayern just ran away from the start of the season most of us just wanted to have another shot of CL football. As I said, the last time a team other than Bayern won consecutive titles was 16 years ago...