Champions League Groups (Update p6)

[Cobwebcat]

Re: Champions League Groups

UEFA's pots are potty.

They bear no relation to the current strength of teams but reward historical success in Europe only.

There are a few really good systems the best of which is http://clubelo.com/ as I always preach, but it's all political with UEFA.

That said the cream usually rises to the top by the last 8 in spite of their crude ranking system.

 

[JGL07]

Re: Champions League Groups

It's that time of year where we can start to imagine what the pots will look like for next season's Champions League:

Pot 1:
Barcelona / Bayern Munich / Real Madrid / Chelsea / Man Utd / Arsenal /
Porto / Valencia

Pot 2:
Benfica / At Madrid / Lyon / Shaktar Donetsk / AC Milan / Schalke 04 / Marseille / CSKA Moscow

Pot 3:
PSG / Juventus / Zenit St Petersburg / City / Dynamo Kiev / Ajax / PSV / Borussia Dortmund

Pot 4:
Galatassaray / Bayer Leverkusen / FC Copenhagen / Napoli / Anderlecht / Celtic / Fenerbache / Olympiakos

If Borussia Dortmund win the CL then they will be promoted to Pot 1. Who would bet against them?

As has already been pointed out Valencia will probably miss out on the CL. Real Sociedad have a 5 point advantage. Real Sociedad would be a fair bet to make it through the qualification stages for non-champions at the expense of one from (Chelsea/Arsenal, Lyon, AC Milan, Shalke 04 and PSV).

Just maybe City could get Porto, Lyon, and Copenhagen.

More likely to be Barcelona, PSG, and Napoli.

 

[MCRJON]

Re: Champions League Groups

I have the pots as :

1 Barca, Bayern, Madrid, Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica,
2 At. Madrid, Lyon, Shaktar, AC Milan, Shalke, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, PSG,
3 Juventus, Zenit, MCFC, Kiev, Ajax, Eindhoven, Dortmund, Basel,
4 Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Leverkusen, FC Copenhagen, Napoli, Fenerbache, Anderlecht, BATE Borisov

Below are the teams who rank above city who are at risk and the teams likely to replace them. In all cases the teams coming in are below City and would move us (and most others up).

At Risk Chelsea / Arsenal - Spurs
Lyon - St Etienne, Lille, Nice
Milan - Fiorentina
Shalke - Frankfurt, Freiburg


Chelsea / Arsenal, Lyon, and Shalke are all 'high risk' lets say, and Milan are only 3 points clear of Fiorentina althgouh your would expect them to wrap it up.

There is real pressure to perform this year (for lots of reasons), on the 5 year ranking next season we lose the 1/4 final run v Hamburg. For context we got the same amount of points for our 2011/12 season as we did for that. Qualifying from the group would see us gain, anything less and we lose points for the 14/15 season.

The 15/16 season we will be Pot 1/2. The season under Hughes when we weren't in Europe is lost so we make a massive gain.

 

[cmdub]

Re: Champions League Groups

As long as we don't get paired with some world beater team from pot 2 like a PSG we should be ok tbh and Mancini has gotta know that next year is make or break for him in Europe

 

[M24-CRC]

Re: Champions League Groups

Porto
Athletico
City
Leverkusen

for me, 3 good trips there.

or

Barca
Lyon
City
Leverkusen

agree with you there Billy.
For me, Porto was probably one of the best euro away trips I've been on.
Anywhere in Spain or Germany are always good trips.

p.s. is it wrong that I am are still only bothered whether the teams we draw are good away trips/piss ups rather than giving us the best chance to qualify from the group. LOL

 

[coulsonblue]

Re: Champions League Groups

Last time I checked we wouldn't be facing AC Milan. Would like to though.

 

[inbetween]

Re: Champions League Groups

Would love a trip to the Nou Camp, been before but to watch City there would be fantastic

 

[JGL07]

Re: Champions League Groups

It's that time of year where we can start to imagine what the pots will look like for next season's Champions League:

Pot 1:
Barcelona / Bayern Munich / Real Madrid / Chelsea / Man Utd / Arsenal /
Porto / Valencia

Pot 2:
Benfica / At Madrid / Lyon / Shaktar Donetsk / AC Milan / Schalke 04 / Marseille / CSKA Moscow

Pot 3:
PSG / Juventus / Zenit St Petersburg / City / Dynamo Kiev / Ajax / PSV / Borussia Dortmund

Pot 4:
Galatassaray / Bayer Leverkusen / FC Copenhagen / Napoli / Anderlecht / Celtic / Fenerbache / Olympiakos

This is not feasible as you have 9 potential qualifiers (Chelsea/Arsenal, Lyon, AC Milan, Shalke 04, PSV, Fenerbache, Valencia, Zenit, Kiev) from the non-Champions' play-off round when there are only five places available.

There must be five qualifiers from the Champions' play off-round including the likes of Celtic, Basel, APEOL, BATE, Austria Vien, etc. You only have Celtic in.

 

[MCFC Fort Worth]

Re: Champions League Groups

Wouldn't mind a trip back to Schalke

 

[OxBlue]

Re: Champions League Groups

Porto
Athletico
City
Leverkusen

for me, 3 good trips there.

or

Barca
Lyon
City
Leverkusen

agree with you there Billy.
For me, Porto was probably one of the best euro away trips I've been on.
Anywhere in Spain or Germany are always good trips.

p.s. is it wrong that I am are still only bothered whether the teams we draw are good away trips/piss ups rather than giving us the best chance to qualify from the group. LOL

True dream draw for me would be (impossible I know)

Real Mallorca
Hamburg
FC Tallin
City

Oh for the heady days of The Europa again.