Then again - Leicester were looking at relegation with a couple of weeks to go in 2015, Premier League champions the following year. Nobody said that they didn't deserve it.
Liverpool beat Milan in the final in a season when they lost 10 league matches. Obviously not the best team in Europe, then.
That's just football for you, isn't it? I'll be quite happy with a 5th-place back door entry (cue the 'oooer Missus' jokes)
The Champions League would still work in the old format as Champions Only, in the new League format they use now
16 teams, the top 8 go into the knockouts, When they revamped the Champions League, they should have changed its name to Uefa Super league