Champions League Draw - 29th August '24 | Opponents (pg69) | Fixtures (pg128)

Gonna post something controversial..

We had a real chance and should be 4 in a row CL champions but blew 3 of our 4 chances since 2021 when we were clearly the better team vs Chelsea and 2 years vs RM.

We need to improve at cup knockout football.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Gonna post something controversial..

We had a real chance and should be 4 in a row CL champions but blew 3 of our 4 chances since 2021 when we were clearly the better team vs Chelsea and 2 years vs RM.

We need to improve at cup knockout football.
Click to expand...


Getting to those stages was some achievement but you have a point.
 
cptaidan88 said:
View attachment 120900
My understanding is that it is predetermined to the final from the group stage positioning, but I am still figuring out these rules so not confident to say you are definitely wrong at this stage.

This will make flights to away games more expensive as people will search for routes/airlines will be able to increase costs before we know for certain if we're getting through each round (and the opposition).
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This is better! The last 8 draws have been skewed this last few years with one half containing the strongest sides. City v Madrid should have been the final for the last 3 years.
 
One of several horrible scenarios for City to draw:
Madrid
Liverpool
Leverkeusen
Arsenal
Feyenoord
Sporting
Villa
Gerona

I suspect there will be some "seeding" or "grouping" caveats for TV, so maybe you cannot draw 3 teams from the same league or is it just a plain old open draw?

Edit: read that the draw will be designed to not have teams from the same league playing one another but may be unavoidable for leagues with 4+ teams in it. So we may get one of Arse, Scouse, Villa.
 
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Blue_Lightsaber said:
Gonna post something controversial..

We had a real chance and should be 4 in a row CL champions but blew 3 of our 4 chances since 2021 when we were clearly the better team vs Chelsea and 2 years vs RM.

We need to improve at cup knockout football.
Click to expand...
Hard one to call really. The staggering success uner Pep in the league has probably impacted negatively on our performance in the CL and FA Cup which has been comparatively inferior.
In the early years we were outstanding in the LC so that kind of debunks your theory. Clearly the most recent disaster at Wembley was at least in part caused by the supreme effort in the last two months of the season to overcome the dippers and gunners.
The Madrid results really do my head in, particularly two years ago, a collapse not fully erased by the thrashing we gave them last season. Fine margins have fallen in our favour 3 or 4 times now in the final stages of the league and I would argue that maybe good fortune has not smiled upon us in the later stages of cups.
 
Father Paul said:
Hard one to call really. The staggering success uner Pep in the league has probably impacted negatively on our performance in the CL and FA Cup which has been comparatively inferior.
In the early years we were outstanding in the LC so that kind of debunks your theory. Clearly the most recent disaster at Wembley was at least in part caused by the supreme effort in the last two months of the season to overcome the dippers and gunners.
The Madrid results really do my head in, particularly two years ago, a collapse not fully erased by the thrashing we gave them last season. Fine margins have fallen in our favour 3 or 4 times now in the final stages of the league and I would argue that maybe good fortune has not smiled upon us in the later stages of cups.
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It is a great and under rated achievement to have been in the latter stages of the CL so consistently. But I think it’s due to a variety of factors that we haven’t won more. The Chelsea game had clearly the wrong team picked and we just didn’t play well, The Real games a couple of years ago were a mixture of heartbreak and poor game management. The home leg we were 2 goals up 3 times yet ended up with just a slender lead. This season we played well at home and should have won but they defended well and got lucky on penalties. It does take a lot to align for a team to win it.
 
WTF? An article mentioning Pep winning it as a player, rags losing it at wembley and City being current champions.
Has Tom Morgan not had the media memo..?
 
Totally agree you say exactly what you see
Well done fantastic post
If we're all honest everyone should agree with you
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
Gonna post something controversial..

We had a real chance and should be 4 in a row CL champions but blew 3 of our 4 chances since 2021 when we were clearly the better team vs Chelsea and 2 years vs RM.

We need to improve at cup knockout football.
Click to expand...

Ifs and buts. Most top teams can say the same thing.

Our record in cup/knock out football is also excellent. Has any team in a top European league won as many knock out cups as us since Pep arrived?

Champions League Winners

2022/23

FIFA Club World Cup Winners

2023

FA Cup Winners

2018/19, 2022/23

League Cup Winners

2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21
 
HelloCity said:
Ifs and buts. Most top teams can say the same thing.

Our record in cup/knock out football is also excellent. Has any team in a top European league won as many knock out cups as us since Pep arrived?

Champions League Winners

2022/23

FIFA Club World Cup Winners

2023

FA Cup Winners

2018/19, 2022/23

League Cup Winners

2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21
Click to expand...
If you're comparing top European leagues, it's probably best to ignore League Cups as (apart from England) none of them has a second cup competition.
France did have a League Cup but it was discontinued in 2020 to avoid fixture congestion. None of the other major countries have ever had one.
 
Alfie Budd said:
If you're comparing top European leagues, it's probably best to ignore League Cups as (apart from England) none of them has a second cup competition.
France did have a League Cup but it was discontinued in 2020 to avoid fixture congestion. None of the other major countries have ever had one.
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I’ll choose not to thanks.

Our record is fucking incredible and as good as any in the history of English football. I’ll celebrate it rather than drag it down.
 
bluesmith said:
As each team has to play another team there was half as many games as you've said in the previous format. There was 6 match weeks where each group had 2 matches and there was 8 groups. 6 x 2 x 8 = 96.

Assuming understood the new format there will 8 rounds of 18 matches = 144 matches - 48 extra.
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I know you have quoted "group stage" but there's another 16 play off games after the initial League phase, groups don't count anymore. I think this is where the problem lies, 4 extra games for those teams in 9-24th position is an absolute killer especially if it concerns a team from the most competitive league in Europe, the Premier League.

The Competition could have been a 36 club Champions League League, split into 3 x 12's for coefficient purposes, use the criteria we're now following, each team plays one home and one away from each seeded group, total 6 games, top 12 go through, next 8 play off. That should have proved exciting up to match day 6, with 8 match days there's going to be a lot of dead rubbers with the top teams already qualifying, there will be some shenanigans as teams already through rest their players.

England's teams wi be disadvantaged as there's games in January after a busy December schedule and no mid winter break next season. Depending on our CL position in the League format we may have to play a second string in the FA Cup and the League cup will have to be forfeited from match one by playing an out and out EDL team, no point in not doing so, get the EDL Manager to take care of the game as well.
 
HelloCity said:
I’ll choose not to thanks.

Our record is fucking incredible and as good as any in the history of English football. I’ll celebrate it rather than drag it down.
Click to expand...
Same as but it's not feasible from next season, it was an immense achievement to win it 4 times on the spin. Kyle Walkers first ever medal at the age of 27, it meant so much to him, summed up how a lot of us felt, destroying the Tarquins 3-0, never forget that.
 
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