New CL Format Thoughts | After GW2 (pg13) | GW3 (pg33)

[Tbilisi]

Awful last night, like shooting fish in a barrel.
No wonder the crowd was quiet first half.
Would have been better playing Sparta away and PSG at home but suspect it would blow up the computer.

 

[jimharri]

Don't know Jim, because there are so many teams vying for so few points with the probability of no "6 pointers" as you don't play everyone, I think the last few games will be really exciting.

Teams dropping a huge number of places if dropping points.

I've found it a bit meh so far; hopefully you're right about the later stages of the league stage.

Although, reading the media, Villa are apparently blazing a trail across the continent.

 

[Stoned Rose]

The last two we played were national champions. Where does that leave those who say it should be champions only?

Fucked.

 

[Cobwebcat]

Still quite like it.

 

[JGL07]

So we have two groups of complaints here:

One group are moaning that it is not restricted to national league champions.

The other group are whinging that there are too many crap teams included such as Sparta Prague, Slovan Bratislava, and Club Brugge (all national champions).

I think that the new format is refreshing although the extra two matches is a problem.

The old format tended to bring the same clubs up in the draw year after year. Remember getting CSKA, Bayern Munich, Monchengladbach, Napoli, etc. on multiple occasions?

The new format adding a couple of extra two (maybe four?) CL fixtures, when combined with the expanded Club World Cup makes it difficult to sustain the current domestic schedule.

The EPL, UEFA, and FIFA have created this between them. In don’t know what the solution will be?

 

[halfcenturyup]

Don't know Jim, because there are so many teams vying for so few points with the probability of no "6 pointers" as you don't play everyone, I think the last few games will be really exciting.

Teams dropping a huge number of places if dropping points.

That's the thing, though. Basically, if you win your last two games you should have enough to go through. The first six games are pretty much meaningless.

And teams that have enough points after 6 games will be relaxing, so it all becomes a lottery.

Until the knock-outs start, it's just a big nothing like before with a few extra "good" games which won't really have any bearing on anything.

All imho.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Until the knock-outs start, it's just a big nothing like before with a few extra "good" games which won't really have any bearing on anything.

I think the prize money being offered is a game changer for the smaller clubs

Each win will earn them €400,000, while draws will give them around €133,000.
Shamrock Rovers won the other night and have mow earned more than they have ever done and still have 5 matches to go.

 

[malg]

It feels to meike there are more games that previously you'd only get in the latter stages. I always thought the group stages were boring as fuck apart from the ever present 'group of death'. Competition never really got interesting until the knock out stages.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

It feels to meike there are more games that previously you'd only get in the latter stages. I always thought the group stages were boring as fuck apart from the ever present 'group of death'. Competition never really got interesting until the knock out stages.

Agree, the problem with the groups was the repeat games against dross. If you spank a team away and then play them at home a few weeks later it's a total waste of a game.

It's much better playing dross once as you never know.

 

[M23 Citizen]

Looking at the English teams fixtures:

City play 6 Champions, 1 x 2nd place and 1 x 3rd place.
les arse (2nd) play 5 Champions, 1 x 2nd, 1 x 3rd and 1 x 4th place.
dippers (3rd) play 3 Champions, 1 x 2nd, 1 x 3rd, 2 x 4th and 1 x 5th place.
Villa (4th) play 3 Champions, 1 x 2nd, 2 x 3rd, 1 x 4th and 1 x 5th place.

Hmmmm......

Some Championship teams are better than some champions in the Champions League, so playing champions is neither here nor there really.

We could play no champions and have a tougher run of fixtures than another team who only play champions.

Juventus and Feyenoord weren’t champions of their leagues yet they are better teams than Brugge, Sparta and Bratislava who were.

Wrexham and Birmingham would arguably beat Bratislava. They’re the worst team we’ve ever faced in the CL. The second worst we’ve faced are Brugge a few years ago and we’ve got them again. We’ve had tougher games against Chanpinship teams in the FA Cup than we did against them.