Athletic data from the Champions League suggests PSG were soon the team to beat

The Champions League is over for another year, but what a tournament the 2024/25 edition proved to be.

A new format was introduced, and it's safe to say that after initial reticence, the league stage - rather than a group stage - provided some matches of the highest quality throughout all eight games and the competition became much more exciting as a result. Thanks to data from the analytical company PFF FC, we took a look at some of the most interesting athletic statistics of the season.

New UCL league format a huge success

Where previously Europe's big teams would often qualify for the Round of 16 at a canter, meaning the final one or two group games would become a 'dead rubber,' last season some top teams still needed to win their final league games in order to make it through to the latter stages.

Manchester City, for example, had to beat Club Brugge to ensure progression, having only achieved eight points from their opening seven matches.

They did manage to get the victory required, with Nico O'Reilly emerging as a notable player for Pep Guardiola in 24/25, and whose presence was certainly felt in the Champions League at least.

15.91% of his runs were defined as HSR (high-speed running), the most by any player in the competition. But in the end, City would quickly be dumped out of the tournament by the holders, Real Madrid, who were themselves comprehensively beaten over two legs of their quarter-final against Arsenal.

PSG soon became the team to beat

The Gunners may have thought their name was on the trophy given the way in which Los Blancos were dispatched, however, they were no match for eventual winners, Paris Saint-Germain.

Despite only finishing in 15th position, Luis Enrique's side had become the team to beat in the knockout stages after knocking out pre-tournament favourites, Liverpool, over two legs in what has to be one of the best ties of the entire competition in 24/25.

Inter Milan had shrugged off Barcelona in two epic semi-final clashes, though they too were no match for the Parisiens, losing by a record 5-0 scoreline in a one-sided final.

PSG's Joao Neves had a big part to play in the final, and at 20 years of age, he can look back on last season's tournament knowing that he covered the most distance out of any player (170.87km).

Hakimi on fire, Penxa not out of the blocks

Fellow PSG ace, Achraf Hakimi, recorded the top speed of 35.54 km/h over the course of the competition, whilst Sparta Prague's Lukas Penxa was the slowest with a 14.99 km/h reading, though he did only spend 1.74 minutes on the pitch in the entire tournament.

Hakimi also had the most sprints in the UCL (459), which was significantly more than Barcelona's Raphinha in second place (375), and as if to emphasise just how hard Luis Enrique was getting his PSG players to work, Nuno Mendes (331), William Pacho (325) and Bradley Barcola (321) were also in the top six for this particular metric.

Right down the bottom came seven players who had no sprints at all during the competition in 24/25.

Five goalkeepers (Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Gregoire Coudert, Phillip Kohn, Alexander Meyer and Joel Drommel) would be expected to be there, though Arsenal's Nathan Butler-Oyedeji and Atletico Madrid's Thomas Lemar should hang their heads in shame.

What's also worth pointing out is that Mendes, Neves, Hakimi and Pacho were also in the top six players (all from PSG) who walked the most during the entire competition, Pacho's 54.61km distance covered being the equivalent to 33.93 miles!