Tottenham Hotspur escaped the Group of Death, and then some.

On Wednesday, Tottenham laughed at those who thought Spurs would be unable to reach the Champions League knockout phase, defeating Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley Stadium to qualify for the tournament’s last 16. It was a phenomenal night for the English club, which outplayed Los Blancos in all aspects of the game and could have scored more than three goals.

Dele Alli, who made his first appearance in the Champions League this season and endured a bumpy start to the campaign, overshadowed Harry Kane, who was returning from a hamstring problem. The English midfielder opened the scoring in the 27th minute, one-timing the ball into the back of the net after Nacho needlessly produced a throw-in, although the assistant referee failed to note that Kieran Trippier was in an offside position.

Alli then doubled Tottenham’s lead in the 56th minute, beating Casemiro twice and striking the ball past Kiko Casilla via a deflection off Sergio Ramos. Spurs’ third was produced by Christian Eriksen, while Cristiano Ronaldo scored what proved to be nothing more than a consolation goal for Madrid.

“It was a fantastic performance from us,” Alli said, according to the Guardian’s Jacob Steinberg. “We knew if we stuck to the game plan and stayed solid at the back, we would have a lot of chances. We spoke after the game at their place and couldn’t believe the space we had. The easy pass was sometimes too obvious at times. We don’t want to compete with these teams, we want to be winning.”

Tottenham’s last adventure in Europe – in which Spurs were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage and subsequently tasted defeat to KAA Gent in the Europa League – now feels like a distant memory.

The Champions League group stage is two-thirds toward completion, and for each continental power struggling to secure progression to the knockout stage, a fresh face is making a claim to enter the discussion.

Two-time defending champ Real Madrid appears a shadow of its former self, Juventus, the side it beat last in June’s final, has faced its fair share of obstacles, and last year’s semi-finalists Monaco and Atletico Madrid perilously hang onto narrow hopes.

Conversely, continental tenderfoots Manchester City, Tottenham, and Besiktas have the look of world-beaters and suddenly, the 2017-18 Champions League is a wide-open affair.

With the knockout stage picture less murky after Wednesday’s fixtures, gaze into a crystal ball and have your say below:

Former Barcelona metronome Xavi has decided to call it quits following the 2017-18 campaign in Qatar.

The 37-year-old, who’s currently the captain of Al-Sadd, told Catalan newspaper Sport he would remain in the game as a manager.

“I’ve had luck not to be injured and I think my career has come toward its end. There’s been a descent,” he said, as translated by Reuters. “Qatar allowed me this. Now I see myself being more tired. It’s harder to recover. It will surely be my last year of being a footballer.

“I have the idea of getting my coaching licence next year and being a coach.”

Those words will ring loudly in the corridors of Camp Nou, where he spent the vast majority of his celebrated two-decade career. The embodiment of Pep Guardiola’s possession football, Xavi made Barcelona’s passing game possible.

He won eight La Liga titles with the Blaugrana, three Copas del Rey, four Champions League trophies, and a pair of UEFA Super Cups. Xavi also won the 2010 World Cup in between two European Championship triumphs with Spain.

No one has appeared more times in a Barcelona shirt than Xavi, whose 767 outings confirm his status as one of the sport’s ironmen.

He moved to Al Sadd in 2015 and became an ambassador for Qatar’s World Cup committee. The gulf nation won the right to hold the 2022 edition despite reports of modern-day slavery and various human rights abuses.

Xavi’s Al-Sadd is currently in third place in the Qatar Stars League after seven matchdays.

As the corruption scandal engulfing FIFA hits the courtrooms, the 2022 World Cup is under the microscope.

On Thursday, FIFA’s Human Rights Advisory Board published its first report. In it, the advisory board recommends that FIFA press Qatar’s government about the impact of the kafala system on migrant workers involved in construction for the 2022 World Cup.

The kafala system is regarded as modern slavery, requiring migrant workers to obtain the consent of their employers to terminate their employment contracts. The report recommends that “FIFA actively explore ways to use its leverage to engage with the host government about the impact of the kafala system on migrant workers involved in World Cup-related construction.”

According to the Guardian’s David Conn, the number of workers in Qatar who are brought in from poorer countries – India, Nepal, Bangladesh – and who are employed to build eight stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, is expected to rise from 12,000 to 36,000 over the next year. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, a quasi-governmental committee organising the tournament, told Human Rights Watch that they expect the number of workers on their projects to peak at around 35,000 by late 2018 or early 2019.

In September, Human Rights Watch said that thousands of migrant workers on construction sites in Qatar, including those building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, are being subjected to “potentially life-threatening heat and humidity.” The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy classified eight deaths between October 2015 and July 2017 as “non-work-related,” listing seven of them as the result of “cardiac arrest” and “acute respiratory failure.” But, as Human Rights Watch pointed out, the terms “obscure the underlying cause of deaths and make it impossible to determine whether they may be related to working conditions, such as heat stress.”

The advisory board was created in early 2017 to provide “independent advice” on FIFA’s human-rights responsibilities. The expert group is comprised of eight representatives and includes members from the UN System, civil society, trade unions, and FIFA sponsors.

Fatma Samoura, FIFA’s general secretary, said: “This report shows that FIFA is making important progress in integrating respect for human rights throughout its wide range of activities. We are taking a pioneering role in that regard and feel privileged to be able to count on the outstanding support of the advisory board members. They validate the important progress that is taking place and challenge us where more is still to be done.”

Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who sounded the alarm about dangerous conditions in Qatar and the unexplained death of thousands of workers, sees the report as inadequate. He declared that it was “shocking” that explicit and urgent recommendations weren’t made to prevent workers from the dangerous conditions and investigate the unexplained deaths.

The International Trade Union Confederation welcomed a breakthrough to end the kafala system in October, announcing that new guidance and commitments made by Qatar’s government will dismantle the system.