The Champions League group stage came to an end on Wednesday, summing up a rather eventful set of groups.

Summarizing the contenders remaining in the tournament is rather predictable these days and by extension, not that interesting. Instead, it is likely of greater value to go through some of the bigger surprises from the groups, including the major disappointments that came about in what has been an eventful tournament thus far.

Manchester United Fails

What is there to say about Manchester United these days that is actually positive? The team plays a boring style that seems to falter in big games. Tuesday was the day that determines the quality of a side. United had one mission only -- win.

Instead, the team foundered under its own expectations. It got an early lead and blew it. An own goal put the team level and gave it a chance to close the deal. Minutes later it conceded and lost.

Louis van Gaal might have signed his death warrant at the club after that performance, signaling a major shakeup at season's end.

All in all, this is a team that was expected to navigate an easy group and wound up heading to Europa instead.

By the same token, congrats to PSV Einhoven and Wolfsburg for moving onto the next stage, even though most had one of these groups eliminated at the group stage.

Manchester City Wins Its Group

Meanwhile the Manchester team that most expected to fail got through arguably the toughest group in the competition and finished in first place! For years the Citizens were looked upon as choke artists in the competition, constantly flubbing their lines and falling apart in all situations. Some of those failures could be chalked up to tough competition in the group stage.

But more often than not, the team simply did not live up to its billing.

This year Manchester City passed the first exam and now is in line for a far better Round of 16 draw than it has ever had. No Barcelona this time around. Can the team continue its solid play?

Astana Holds Its Own

In the grand scheme of things, few people outside of Kazakhstan will find this point relevant or interesting. Yet it is worth pointing out that despite being a heavy underdog, the small debutant actually did well in its fight with a tough group. Facing down Benfica, Atletico Madrid and Galatasaray, Astana actually drew with every single opponent and accumulated a whopping four points in six games. For some context, Astana had as many losses as Manchester United, Wolfsburg, Benfica, Manchester City, Roma and Bayer Leverkusen. This could actually sum it up -- the team had fewer losses than Arsenal did across the entire group stage.

Arsenal Makes a Major Comeback

The result was the one everyone expected, but Arsenal made some nice drama out of it. After losing its opening two group games, all looked lost for the Gunners. With two straight against Bayern Munich, few had them making it through to the knockout rounds. But confidence was renewed after defeating the Bavarian side at home, giving the team three points it desperately needed to make a run.

Despite getting destroyed 5-1 in Munich in the follow-up, there was still hope. The team just needed some luck and hard work.

The first half of this request was issued by Munich, which destroyed both Olympiacos and Dinamo Zagreb.

The second half of the proposition was all Arsenals. After dismantling Zagreb at home, the team had one mission -- win by two in Greece and a spot in the final 16 was there for the taking.

And win the team did, with a 3-0 destruction of the Greek team, arguably Arsenal's best win of the year.

Now they need to hope for a good draw to keep their tournament hopes alive.

Zenit St. Petersburg among the best point producers of the group stage

The Russian club was 28th in possession statistics in the first round, 24th in passing completion rate per game, 26th in shots per game and 19th out of 32 in shots against per game. Not statistics anyone would want to hang their hat on.

Yet the Russian contingent racked up more points than any other club in the first round of the tournament with two exceptions -- Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Not bad company to be in.

How did they do it?

Luck might be a big factor. The group was not particularly challenging for starters.

Its completion rate was rather shocking considering that the team scored 43 percent of the shots it took.

The reality is that that latter number is not sustainable, especially against competition that does not include Valencia, Lyon or Gent. For some perspective, last year's Champions Barcelona scored on 36 percent of its attempts that were on target.

That said, the team deserves credit for getting the job done in a group that many thought would see them finish second or third.

All statistics from WhoScored.com.