Champions League Games | Quarter-Finals | 9/10/16/17 April '24

Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
I know that this debate is about who watches on telly essentially — more and more, football is, and I deplore it! — but I really do wonder if the stadiums are filled for the group matches. And not just the Etihad. The Parc des Princes, the Bernabeu, the Nou Camp, the Allianz Arena and elsewhere. I'd be very curious to see the figures over the whole of Europe.
Even on telly. It's anecdotal, and I'm speaking purely for myself, but I simply never watch a group match unless it involves City. Not even tempted. And even then, to my shame, I have to admit that I sometimes miss the occasional group match for City, and find myself catching up with the highlights the next day. Am I alone?
The group games generate important revenue for the smaller clubs, I think. And just generally give them a visibility that they wouldn't otherwise have. I'll admit I had not so much as heard of Viktoria Pilsen (or whatever they're called). That visibility is not a bad thing. But the footballers from the top clubs are playing more and more and more football, and you can see the effects towards the end of the season. I don't want to talk like someone who's saying “Oh we're at the table of the great, now, fuck the minnows”. Shame on any City fan — above all — who gets into that mindset. But it is a consideration as to how much you can ask these top athletes to keep performing in match after match. UEFA and FIFA are expanding their competitions all the time. It's great for the revenue. Is it good for the footballers? Is it even good for the quality of football?
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To be clear, my post was about the reality of why UEFA (and the participant clubs) would not go to a fully knockout competition for the CL, not whether that is a good thing for footballers or football as a whole (I am personally conflicted when it comes to that).
 
Stephen230 said:
Doesn’t always work out this way but the more group games you win, the higher your seeding in the knockout stage and in theory, the easier your passage to the final.

Finish first or second seed for example and you’re guaranteed all second legs to be at home, right through to the final, which I think is a big advantage.
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That's all fine, but it comes down to luck of the initial draw. You play two teams from each pot. This season we could have played Barcelona and Bayern Munich or Benfica and Feyenoord from Pot 1. So it's quite unlikely the top 2 in the league are going to be the best two teams when it comes to the crunch. It helps moving forwards, but if we finished 1st and Real 2nd and were split up I'd argue our route to winning it was harder as we'd face them in a one off game. I'd much rather two legs against the better sides and a one off against someone "easier" on paper.

Pre-tournament you'd have had City, Bayern, Real, Inter, PSG, Arsenal, Barca as the sides most likely to win it this year. Semi finals are going to have three of those teams in them. It's spun to be innovative but on paper the competition is going to see a couple of better group games, but then potentially be dull until the semi finals.
 
supercity88 said:
That's all fine, but it comes down to luck of the initial draw. You play two teams from each pot. This season we could have played Barcelona and Bayern Munich or Benfica and Feyenoord from Pot 1. So it's quite unlikely the top 2 in the league are going to be the best two teams when it comes to the crunch. It helps moving forwards, but if we finished 1st and Real 2nd and were split up I'd argue our route to winning it was harder as we'd face them in a one off game. I'd much rather two legs against the better sides and a one off against someone "easier" on paper.

Pre-tournament you'd have had City, Bayern, Real, Inter, PSG, Arsenal, Barca as the sides most likely to win it this year. Semi finals are going to have three of those teams in them. It's spun to be innovative but on paper the competition is going to see a couple of better group games, but then potentially be dull until the semi finals.
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We’ll see. Impossible to judge until we’ve had a season of it at least.

Apart from the extra two games which we could do without, I’m mildly optimistic it’ll liven up the group stages a touch.

It’s the price to pay for being so fucking good at the moment, that the group games are so dull and lacking in any kind of jeopardy. Even if we were to lose the odd one at the moment, you know we’re still going to cruise through in top stop.
 
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