Champions League 25/26

[Insidious]

Juventus and Atletico, you would think, will navigate their ties.

I'd be really keen to avoid Atletico. There's a very real possibility that if we want to be in next season's Tournament, we'll have to win this one.

What will be will be though - the list of teams I'd rather not play seems to have grown of late

Hopefully we can return to "let's stomp these tw*ts" levels of confidence again soon.

[Nineteenx]

His comment about only being in the Europa league as a means of making excuses for himself was a new low even for him tbh

[JockStrap]

His comment about only being in the Europa league as a means of making excuses for himself was a new low even for him tbh

It’s also a fact. We got dumped out of the Europa League by Atalanta.

I would prefer Slot to focus on the upcoming games and not hark back to the past though. There wasn’t any need for that comment.

[JockStrap]

These are the play off ties to get into the last 16

Dortmund v Atalanta
Olimpiakos v Leverkusen
Galatasaray v Juventus
Brugge v Atletico
Qarabag v Newcastle
Monaco v PSG
Benfica v Madrid
Bodo/Glimt v Inter

First leg played 17-18th Feb, second leg 24-25th Feb.

[Insidious]

"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope"

[JockStrap]

It's still on. 3 points behind Utd with 12 games to go.

[JockStrap]

By my reckoning 67 points should guarantee 5th spot.

We're currently on 42 points with 12 games left. So 2 points per game requierd until the end of the season.

[Kev0909]

It's still on. 3 points behind Utd with 12 games to go.

Imagine saying that after last season when this season started

same with salah etc performances

[JockStrap]

This is an interesting article on the current state of the Champions League.

At the top of the food chain, a Champions League that began for title winners in 1992 this season boasts six English sides, five Spanish and four each from Italy and Germany - four nations accounting for more than half the 36 league-phase teams.

While the competition has increased in size and value - Uefa's TV rights grew from just shy of £500m in 2003-04 to £2.8bn in 2023-24, with the new cycle from 2027 expected to generate more than £4bn - the pool of winners has narrowed.

Only Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain have broken the English and Spanish clubs' hold on the trophy in the past 15 years. An Italian team last won it in 2010.

It would be a huge shock to see former champions Marseille, Ajax or Porto, for example, win the competition in the near future. Even more so Red Star Belgrade, PSV or Steaua Bucharest (now FCSB) from the latter days of the European Cup.

A revamp of the competition has allowed more clubs to participate, play more games and register more upsets - most notably debutants Bodo/Glimt, who beat Manchester City and Atletico Madrid this term.

Yet Ajax, in 2019, are the only club outside Europe's top five leagues to reach the semi-finals in the past two decades. Over the past four seasons, only Benfica (twice) have muscled in to make the quarter-finals.

"If you said when the Champions League was born in 1992 'this is what it's going to be like', I'm pretty sure they'll have said 'wow, we really messed up'," says Alex Muzio, president of the Union of European Clubs (UEC).

There's a lot more to the article than that but I thought that piece particularly relevant. How do they make the competition more competitive. And further to that, how do they make some of the leagues more competitive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...s/cgmzylx4004o

[Kev0909]

More like the europa these days with some of the teams in it.

[JockStrap]

Galatasaray 5 - 2 Juventus

WOW.

[JockStrap]

Juve 2-1 at HT. They concede 4 goals in the second half and have a man sent off. Mental.

[jozza800]

This is an interesting article on the current state of the Champions League.



There's a lot more to the article than that but I thought that piece particularly relevant. How do they make the competition more competitive. And further to that, how do they make some of the leagues more competitive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football...s/cgmzylx4004o

I read this yesterday.

Money has always been part of the game. Rich clubs have always been more successful than poorer clubs.

Difference now is the gap. Money has elongated the game to such a point that without some sort of correction it will never be properly competitive outside of a handful of clubs.

Though I don't see it ever being fixed. Turkeys don't vote for Chrimbo.

[JockStrap]

I read this yesterday.

Money has always been part of the game. Rich clubs have always been more successful than poorer clubs.

Difference now is the gap. Money has elongated the game to such a point that without some sort of correction it will never be properly competitive outside of a handful of clubs.

Though I don't see it ever being fixed. Turkeys don't vote for Chrimbo.

Yea I agree. What we have is a European Super League in all but name. That idea has been floated several times since the 1960s but always rejected by fans. Seems that we're getting there by a different route.

[JockStrap]

The second round of the knockout stages are back.

Tomorrow - 24 Feb
17:45 Atletico Madrid Agg: 3 - 3 Club Brugge
20:00 Bayer Leverkusen Agg: 2 - 0 Olympiacos
20:00 Inter Agg: 1 - 3 Glimt
20:00 Newcastle United Agg: 6 - 1 Qarabag

Wednesday - 25 Feb
17:45 Atalanta Agg: 0 - 2 Borussia Dortmund
20:00 Juventus Agg: 2 - 5 Galatasaray
20:00 Paris Saint-Germain Agg: 3 - 2 AS Monaco
20:00 Real Madrid Agg: 1 - 0 Benfica

Some close games worth watching. Madrid/Benfica is not over yet. Neither is PSG/Monaco and Atletico/Brugge another interesting game.