The Champions League Thread (1 Viewer)

[Franco]

Champs League qualifying in for a mild shake-up next year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/7737736.stm

Basically the 4th placed English/Spanish/Italian teams will have a potentially harder qualifier, in order to squeeze in some plucky champions from smaller countries. It'll still be a borefest until February.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

Another group stage with absolutely no surprises whatsoever, with the possible exception of Panathanaikos' qualification at the expense of Bremen, but that's hardly earth-shattering.
Pre-Christmas football in general, at the top club level in Europe, is becoming completely redundant.

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

Another group stage with absolutely no surprises whatsoever, with the possible exception of Panathanaikos' qualification at the expense of Bremen, but that's hardly earth-shattering.
Pre-Christmas football in general, at the top club level in Europe, is becoming completely redundant.

i hate the group stages of the CL.

As teams are given a seeding of 1-4 the groups are set up for 1 and 2 to always go through. Like you said Moods there is never really an upset. the gulf between most of the 2nd and 3rd teams is always too big.

but of course we all know its money that drives the CL. it's too big of a money spinner to bring back a big knockout tournament - it's come too far now.

is platini traditional enough to eventually bring it back to its roots?
the possible elimination of England, Spain and Italys 4th placed team would be a start.

 

[Hector Grey]

yeah, fuck the seeding, it's gash, especially as it's based on how well the national team has done too, hence 3 teams from france. 2 euro cup finals in 30 years, and three teams. daft.

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

the Hulkster is up front for Porto tonight!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Givanildo_Vieira_de_Souza

 

[Cormcolash]

Another group stage with absolutely no surprises whatsoever, with the possible exception of Panathanaikos' qualification at the expense of Bremen, but that's hardly earth-shattering.
Pre-Christmas football in general, at the top club level in Europe, is becoming completely redundant.

Totally.
The Champions League needs to change format big time, revert to a straight knock out tournament or something. Pretty much everyone I know has said the same thing, that they don't give a fuck about the group stage shite, and it consistently produces virtually no surprises.
(Plus Celtic would have beat Villareal on aggregate if it had been a knockout!)

 

[trev]

Totally.
The Champions League needs to change format big time, revert to a straight knock out tournament or something. Pretty much everyone I know has said the same thing, that they don't give a fuck about the group stage shite, and it consistently produces virtually no surprises.
(Plus Celtic would have beat Villareal on aggregate if it had been a knockout!)

just leave Celtic out next year and it'll be a better comp.

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

just leave Celtic out next year and it'll be a better comp.

i think Celtic need a new competition:

"The Fairplay Champions League" or "The Great Fans Champions League"

 

[Franco]

The Travel Sickness Cup sponsored by Sea Legs tablets.

 

[trev]

The Travel Sickness Cup sponsored by Sea Legs tablets.

or those travel sickness wristband yokes

 

[Cormcolash]

If they get 50 million quid for winning those cups I'd say they'd be up for it.

 

[ratmonkey]

Chelsea - Juventus. Ranieri'll like that.

 

[ratmonkey]

Real Madrid - Liverpool.
Inter - United.
Lyon - Barcelona.

That's about the pick of it.

 

[nofriendo]

Chelsea v Juventus
Villarreal v Panathinaikos
Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Lyon v Barcelona
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Arsenal v Roma
Inter Milan v Manchester United

pretty crappy draw for the english clubs

 

[Franco]

See this is the problem with the Champs league. It's shit at the start and then in february there's way too many deadly matches all piled up together.

Some seriously tasty games there.

 

[ratmonkey]

The group stages aren't about the matches at all, they're only an excuse to get John Giles on TV.

 

[Franco]

Well not next year cos it's back on TV3. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!

 

[ratmonkey]

Only the Tuesdays. Tuesdays are dead to me now.

 

[Ciarán R]

not one of those eight games is a dead cert....interesting pairings

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

Some seriously tasty games there.

i am seriously turned on