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

[TinFoilHat]

Nice attempt at humour TFH, but have we lost many shoot-outs in European games? Dozy defending, Spuds, Madrid when ahead in the final minute etc, seem to cost us more often.

Can't argue with that.

Brain farts and shoot outs seem to do the job.

 

[acton28.blog]

Match dates are as follows. It's the Tuesday or Wednesday bit that will take 2 days to work out.
UEFA's treatment of fans who travel to away games really pisses me off. They should do a skeleton draw at the start of August and fill in the gaps as teams progress through the qualifying rounds. Fans would then know the dates and venues for about six of the eight fixtures.
It's not ideal but clubs that have to qualify shouldn't benefit from high coefficients at the expense of travelling fans.

Matchday 1	17–18 September 2024
Matchday 2	1–2 October 2024
Matchday 3	22–23 October 2024
Matchday 4	5–6 November 2024
Matchday 5	26–27 November 2024
Matchday 6	10–11 December 2024
Matchday 7	21–22 January 2025
Matchday 8	29 January 2025

The new format avoids the October half-term holiday. Extremely sad about that.

I wonder how few places will be up for grabs come January 29th. Could be many dead rubber games from the 5th fixture onwards. But cash will keep this format rolling.

 

[Ctidpaul]

The new format avoids the October half-term holiday. Extremely sad about that.

I wonder how few places will be up for grabs come January 29th. Could be many dead rubber games from the 5th fixture onwards. But cash will keep this format rolling.

Matchday 1 is over 3 nights Tuesday Wednesday & Thursday 17-19 September

 

[acton28.blog]

Matchday 1 is over 3 nights Tuesday Wednesday & Thursday 17-19 September

Lengthy fixtures with VAR are getting ridiculous

 

[cptaidan88]

1st leg wins for Dinamo Zagreb (3-0 v Qarabag), Bodø Glimt (2-1 v Red Star Belgrade) and Lille (2-0 v Slavia Praha) tonight.

Not been to Norway before but imagine Bodø would be cold in December/January time. 8k stadium just about meets minimum requirements as far as I'm aware but think it would be difficult to get a ticket. From a selfish perspective I hope they would be forced to play in Trondheim or Oslo.

 

[Gray]

1st leg wins for Dinamo Zagreb (3-0 v Qarabag), Bodø Glimt (2-1 v Red Star Belgrade) and Lille (2-0 v Slavia Praha) tonight.

Not been to Norway before but imagine Bodø would be cold in December/January time. 8k stadium just about meets minimum requirements as far as I'm aware but think it would be difficult to get a ticket. From a selfish perspective I hope they would be forced to play in Trondheim or Oslo.

Perhaps Red Star will turn them over in the second leg.

 

[chesterbells]

The new format avoids the October half-term holiday. Extremely sad about that.

I wonder how few places will be up for grabs come January 29th. Could be many dead rubber games from the 5th fixture onwards. But cash will keep this format rolling.

Is it an international break then?
There might be a Carabao match to attend - not quite the glamour of Europe but easier to get tickets and probably cheaper too (assuming a home draw).

 

[acton28.blog]

Is it an international break then?
There might be a Carabao match to attend - not quite the glamour of Europe but easier to get tickets and probably cheaper too (assuming a home draw).

Everything is possible.

 

[cptaidan88]

Perhaps Red Star will turn them over in the second leg.

Very possibly. Just think it's another issue of the new competition. Previous incarnation used to take into account teams playing in "winter venues" to ensure places that are going to be dangerously cold would be away from home for the final match in December. Think they removed that a few years ago but then we ended up going to bloody Kharkiv in December and it was freezing.

Many leagues also don't play in December and January so seems quite unfair to ask them to play Real Madrid or something when they've not played a game for a month.

Moving on.....
Last night's results:
Young Boys 3 Galatasaray 2
Midtjyland 1 Slovan Bratislava 1
Dinamo Kyiv 0 RB Salzburg 2
Malmö 0 Sparta Prague 2

 

[Gray]

Very possibly. Just think it's another issue of the new competition. Previous incarnation used to take into account teams playing in "winter venues" to ensure places that are going to be dangerously cold would be away from home for the final match in December. Think they removed that a few years ago but then we ended up going to bloody Kharkiv in December and it was freezing.

Many leagues also don't play in December and January so seems quite unfair to ask them to play Real Madrid or something when they've not played a game for a month.

Moving on.....
Last night's results:
Young Boys 3 Galatasaray 2
Midtjyland 1 Slovan Bratislava 1
Dinamo Kyiv 0 RB Salzburg 2
Malmö 0 Sparta Prague 2

I am going for the following to go through:

• Young Boys
• D. Zagreb
• Slovan B.
• Red Star
• Sparta P.
• Lille
• Red Bull