2023-24 UEFA Champions League

Nope the United team are better than Copenhagen and Galatasaray. ETH did not do enough to ensure they got through.

Lead twice against Galatasaray at home. Ended up losing.

Beat Copenhagen at home.

Lead twice (2 nil at one stage) against Copenhagen away. Ended up losing.

Lead twice (2 nil at one stage) against Galatasaray away. Ended up drawing.

At no point in those games did ETH try and slow the games down, just pass it around in defence, get players to break up play. Nothing. It was awful management of individual situations, individual games and the group overall.

And United were sht with the manager before him and the manager before him and the manager before him and the manager before him.

The club is sick and no manager is gonna save them. Its banter era Milan but with way more money blown.

didn't see it mentioned here yet that the win by Bayern over Utd extends the unbeaten record in the group stages to 40 games, 10 ahead of the previous record by Real

It was laughable to hear comments that they wouldn’t take the game seriously a couple of days ago seeing as they were already qualified. They lost in their highest league defeat in years by 5-1 away to frankfurt at the weekend so they needed a good performance ahead of the last 2 league games before the Christmas break

I’m not sure if you could class Bayern in the same bracket as say Man City as favourites for the competition but the performance against Utd was about as fluid as they have looked all season. They still are not firing on all cylinders, and the defence is not rock solid, but with a half ways favourable draw they’ll get to the quarters if not semis and from there anything’s possible. (At the same time , a couple of Upemechano mistakes could lead them to loose against the bottom seeds !)

It was only the "group of death" because everyone was kinda shte.

Milan are a very average team by Champions League standards these days and are kicking themselves that they fuked up against Newcastle and Dortmund in the first 2 rounds.

That doesn't mean Newcastle should "hold their heads high". PSG and EPL teams should not be thinking Milan and Dortmund are a group of death.

But given how bad they were I am certainly not "holding my Milan head high" and see the Europa League as a missed opportunity under the circumstances and think Newcastle fans should be doubly disappointed to be out.

Would be very funny if United or Newcastle finish 5th but the EPL don't get the place 🤣

Some decent ties.

Handy one for City.

Pick of ties might be Atleti v Inter and Napoli Barca, although Leipzig Madrid should be a good game of football too.

Last four ties on that list are fairly uninspiring tbh, should be comfortable wins for the seeded teams although Leipzig and Real Madrid should have plenty of goals at least. The Italian vs Spanish ties are probably the pick of the bunch. Napoli and Barcelona could be a cracker.

A lot of years the round of 16 can be the most exciting round with some great ties thrown together

But that is as poor a round of 16 line up as I can remember

Dortmund aren't great so I wouldn't say that will be an easy win.

Dortmund topped a group with 3 big names but not 3 good teams.

Last year was very exciting. Very rare that it's the EPL teams providing the excitement.

Is it Thursday that the EU Court is ruling on the Super League?

To be honest with you, the swiss model looks like a shambles of a format going forward, it makes no sense whatsoever, and looks a very convoluted format for the average armchair fan to be bothered with it.

If they wanted to expand and have more games in the Champions League, they could have had 4 groups of 14 teams. 5th to 8th placed teams (16 teams) in one match playoff round (home venue based on league finish). The 8 winners go into a second one match playoff round against the 3rd & 4th teams (8 teams), with the 8 winner of that going to the last 16. The last 16 would be held a end of season straight knockout competition held in 2/3 different countries over a fortnight. Due to the expansion, all knockout rounds become 1 match cup matches, and the domestic cup champions of the top 10 ranked countries win entry into the first qualifying round for the competition proper (it is meant to be a champions league after all). Much more simple and straightforward.

The new format more than anything could see a Super League proposal look attractive.

will teams still drop down to Europa league? Current format has every third placed team in group into Europa.

I'm fundamentally against a system where you are in a league table against teams you don't play.

Have group stages or a real league but fuk this stupid model that is after making its way into the soccer and rugby.

I bet it also doesn't solve any of the competitiveness or dead rubber issues.

The whole purpose of this model is to remove the dead rubbers.

A team can't afford to lose a 'dead rubber' as dropping points will move you down the league and put you into a play off place instead of straight through as one of the top 8, or have a less favourable draw in the knockouts.

God forbid a team has a chance of winning a champions league game. The teams are still getting pulled from pots so will be streamed based on level. What does it matter if you have Bayern at home and Real away? It means groups of death and easy groups will revert to the mean and everyone will have a more even playing field.

You only have more games if you are not in the top 8 so there's that carrot for them too.

The NFL has 4 team groups where they all play each other home and away.

Ah I was just saying that even the NFL have a home and away against the same opponent.

I don't like the new system, it's just super league stage 1

I think the CL needed a shake up for sure..

Like you I've seen the new format in action on FM and it basically feels like a 4 month warm up for the knockout stages. It's pony.

It'll become extremely rare for a big team to not make the knockout stages no matter how bad they are from what I've seen. You'll play enough minnows to get into the playoffs.

Cup competitions seem to suit Tuchel better at Chelsea IMO. There's wasn't that need to impose an a more attacking style of play for long term across the whole of a season like a league asks for. In Cups, he would play his back 5 with a few midfielders in front. Soak up pressure before picking certain moments to go on the offence. Get a lead and then hold onto it rather than keep the foot down. Not quite as defensive as Conte mind.

Copenhagen are making a game of it surprisingly. Prematch I thought the tie would be over as a contest at this stage 50 minutes gone.

Leipzig denied a perfectly good goal too.

Having this round spread out around 4 different days (2 legs over 8 matchdays) doesn't help alright. I can understand the Tuesday/Wednesday thing but is there a need to have to over different weeks aswell?

i normally properly tune into the CL when it reaches the last 8, it is serious stuff then. I feel the problem is now is the removal of the away goal rule, that used to make games more of a lottery. An away goal could transform a tie. My view is that it was done to ensure the there were fewer shocks and the big teams have a better chance of going through in two legs. I feel the stuff about the "away goal rule" making teams more defensive was a smoke screen.