with the CL draw almost upon us

[Mancity1980]

That speaks volumes... FFS. What's wrong with Pilzen getting to the semifinals? If they win football games then good luck to them.

*shakes head*

And if Pilzen win football games then they'll get to the semifinals but the odds are they won't because they're not good enough. So if you want to watch the best teams play each other then the co-efficient system is a good idea surely?

So the best teams always have the best "co-efficient" do they? How about Dortmund last season?

Admit it. The "co-efficient" system is there to protect the "big" clubs and to almost guarantee big TV audiences in the latter stages, not to ensure healthy competition.

I wonder how good the "co-efficient" of, for instance, Arsenal, Porto and to some extent the rags would look if it had been an open draw for the last few years...?

Nail on head. Why should group stage results against Basel affect co-efficients no less than results against Real and Barca?

 

[Peely01]

We get who we get !
We go where we go!
Who actually gives a fuck?
We are in the Champions League - End Of !

I thought that was going to be a rhyme..

We get who we get !
We go where we go!
Who actually gives a fuck ?
Its Champions League football !

Best i can do as i not a well man at the moment.

 

[squirtyflower]

We get who we get !
We go where we go!
Who actually gives a fuck?
We are in the Champions League - End Of !

I thought that was going to be a rhyme..

We get who we get !
We go where we go!
Who actually gives a fuck ?
Its Champions League football !

Best i can do as i not a well man at the moment.

good shot but this scans better


We get who we get !
We go where we go!
Who actually gives a fuck ?
Its UEFA's football

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

The top 8 teams are, in order, Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Rags, Arsenal, Porto & Benfica.

Barca & Madrid will definitely be split up and you'd assume Porto and Benfica would be. That leaves Bayern & the three English clubs. So Pot A will possibly be Barca, Bayern, Chelsea and Porto on the basis of highest coefficient. If that's the case then we will be in that side of the draw as well to keep us apart from the rags. So we'll get either Barca, Bayern or Porto from Pot 1.

The best scenario for us is if they don't split Porto & Benfica and have a Pot 1 'A' group of Barca, Bayern, Chelsea and the rags. That would be a "B' group of Real Madrid, Arsenal, Porto & Benfica, giving us a 2/3rds chance of getting one of the Portuguese clubs.

 

[East Level 2]

So if you want to watch the best teams play each other then the co-efficient system is a good idea surely?

Two of the alleged best teams in England played out a bit of a bore-fest the other night. Why not let us watch Cluj, Plzen and Celtic every so often, it might be more interesting than you think. Or perhaps people can't pontificate about Cluj and Plzen as they do over "big teams".
It's all bollocks though; grown men wetting themselves just because Barcelona are on the telly. Watch your own teams ffs.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

The top 8 teams are, in order, Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Rags, Arsenal, Porto & Benfica.

Barca & Madrid will definitely be split up and you'd assume Porto and Benfica would be. That leaves Bayern & the three English clubs. So Pot A will possibly be Barca, Bayern, Chelsea and Porto on the basis of highest coefficient. If that's the case then we will be in that side of the draw as well to keep us apart from the rags. So we'll get either Barca, Bayern or Porto from Pot 1.

The best scenario for us is if they don't split Porto & Benfica and have a Pot 1 'A' group of Barca, Bayern, Chelsea and the rags. That would be a "B' group of Real Madrid, Arsenal, Porto & Benfica, giving us a 2/3rds chance of getting one of the Portuguese clubs.

Depends who TV want to split. If it's us and Rags then the Rags will go into one half with either Arsenal/Chelsea, Porto/Benfica and Barca/Real.

That means we will have either Barca/Real, Bayern and Porto/Benfica as our options.

So on the basis that we've already had Real and Bayern, and the fact that I think it would be funny in UEFA's eyes to pit Rossell v Soriano and Txiki, I think we'll get Barca.

 

[sergiokun]

What time is the draw tomorrow? Would love Porto

 

[Joehannes]

Don't want either of PSG or Marseille but have a feeling we'll get one of them as well one of the big guns from pot one. About time we had some luck with the team drawn from pot four though.

 

[Stretfordian_Blue]

Pot 1
Bayern Munich CC: 146.922
Barcelona CC: 157.605
Chelsea CC: 137.592
Real Madrid CC: 136.605
Manchester United CC: 130.592
Arsenal CC: 113.592
Porto CC: 104.833
Benfica CC: 102.833

Pot 2
Atlético Madrid CC: 99.605
Shakhtar Donetsk CC: 94.951
AC Milan CC: 93.829
Schalke 04 CC: 84.922
Marseille CC: 78.800
CSKA Moscow CC: 77.766
Paris Saint-Germain CC: 71.800
Juventus CC: 70.829

Pot 3
Zenit CC:70.766
Manchester City CC: 70.592
Ajax CC: 64.945
Borussia Dortmund CC: 61.922
Basel CC: 59.785
Olympiacos CC: 57.800
Galatasaray CC: 54.400
Bayer Leverkusen CC: 53.922

Pot 4
Copenhagen CC: 47.140
Napoli CC: 46.829
Anderlecht CC: 44.880
Steaua București CC: 35.604
FC Viktoria Plzeň CC: 28.745
Real Sociedad CC: 17.065
Austria Wien CC: 16.575
Shakhter Karagandy CC: 2.941

Taking in likely winners from games to play,these will be the pots.

Only game where there is doubt in my mind is AC Milan v PSV Eindhoven, but due to Milan's home advantage I predict them to progress.

Either way, PSV's co-efficient is 64.945 , meaning they would be pot 3 and Zenit would move to pot 2.

We'll almost certainly be Pot 3 for the draw tomorrow, barring a miraculous Pacos de Ferreira comeback.

 

[laserblue]

The key is the split of the draw into two halves. So City/rags, Chelsea/Arse, Bayern/Dortmund/, Real/Barca and Porto/Benfica will all be in separate halves of the draw so their nearest domestic rivals don't have clashing TV dates. Based on the above likely seedings this means that one of City's pot 1 teams will be Chelsea or Arsenal. So that leaves City with either Bayern, Barca/Real or Porto/Benfica as their pot 1 team. If City draw Bayern or are in pot 3 we won't get Dortmund. If we draw Barca or Real we won't get Atletico Madrid. Any draw except AC Milan or Juventus from pot 2 can give us Napoli from pot 4. The one to avoid is PSG from pot 2 which City or any pot 1 team in the same half of the draw could get.

Don't forget it was this split halves of the draw that stitched us up last year. We got Dortmund as our pot 4 team simply because Bayern were in the other half of the draw and left Chelsea and the rags (who were in Bayern's half) with Norsdsjaelland and Cluj respectively. As far as Dortmund were concerned there was simply no other group left that they could be drawn in.

I don't hold with the "I don't care who we get. Bring 'em on" school of thought. That's what we got the last two seasons. I'd much prefer a winnable group than another group of death.

I'd happily settle for Porto, Olympiacos and Viktoria Plzen/Maribor. I'd hate to see us get the likes of Barca, PSG and Napoli.