Actually, in the UCL this season, I initially hoped to see surprises from several clubs that made surprises in the domestic league last season. Like Leverkusen, who made an unbeaten record in the Bundesliga, Girona, who was even a very strong team last season in La Liga, then there is Bologna, who was also surprising in Serie A because they managed to finish in 5th place without anyone expecting it. But it looks like Bologna and Girona are having a tough start to the UCL. Meanwhile, Leverkusen looks like they are starting quite well in the UCL. Because until now Leverkusen has not lost in the 2 matches that have been played.
You should also check their performance in their own domestic league in this season, both Bologna and Girona performance are terrible, while Leverkusen is still fine even though not as strong as in the last season. But, Leverkusen met easier opponents, like Milan and Feyenoord, which is nothing surprising they can won those match.
After all we still have many upcoming match, Girona is quite lucky their opponent not that strong.
Last season we were surprised by the performance of Girona and Bologna and also Leverkusen who were able to appear quite consistently in their respective leagues, so indeed we hope that they can repeat these performances and surprises this season in the UCL, but precisely what we expected did not happen and Leverkusenthe only one from the 3 teams who is still capable and looks ready to face the fierce competition this season, especially in the UCL,while Bologna and Girona of course we can't expect much from them although so far there are still 6 matches left in the UCL semi-league, what happened to Girona and Bologna in my opinion cannot be separated from the transition they experienced after they lost many of their main players in the transfer market last summer, in contrast with Leverkusen who were able to keep their star players so that they could still perform quite solid to this day, leverkusen have a good chance in the semi-league phase especially with their consistent and impresif start to the game with two wins in the UCL, but we'll see how consistent they are this season when they face crucial games against Liverpool, Intermilan and Atletico Madrid later.?