Champions League 24/25 | Matchday 1: September 17-19

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
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From the 2024/25 season, 36 clubs will participate in the Champions League league phase (former group stage), giving four more sides the opportunity to compete against the best clubs in Europe. Those 36 clubs will participate in a single league competition in which all 36 competing clubs are ranked together.

Under the new format, teams will play eight matches in the new league phase (former group stage). They will no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face fixtures against eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away. To determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.

The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition. Teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated, with no access to the UEFA Europa League.

In the knockout phase, the teams that finish between 9th and 16th will be seeded in the knockout phase play-off draw, meaning they will face a team placed 17th to 24th – with, in principle, the return leg at home. The eight clubs which prevail in the knockout phase play-offs will then progress to the round of 16, where they will each face one of the top-eight finishers, who will be seeded in the round of 16.

  • Matchday 1: September 17-19, 2024
  • Matchday 2: October 1/2, 2024
  • Matchday 3: October 22/23, 2024
  • Matchday 4: November 5/6, 2024
  • Matchday 5: November 26/27, 2024
  • Matchday 6: December 10/11, 2024
  • Matchday 7: January 21/22, 2025
  • Matchday 8: January 29, 2025
 
I still have no idea how this works and nor do I care, I might attempt to figure it out if Utd get there next season.

I think should just have one big knockout competition like the FA Cup. Enter every team from every top league in Europe, 1 legged ties, no replays, extra time and penalties for a draw. First team out of the hat gets the home draw.
 
Oranges038 said:
I still have no idea how this works and nor do I care, I might attempt to figure it out if Utd get there next season.

I think should just have one big knockout competition like the FA Cup. Enter every team from every top league in Europe, 1 legged ties, no replays, extra time and penalties for a draw. First team out of the hat gets the home draw.
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Is the Europa format not the same?
 
I've got mixed feelings over the new format.

The greater variety of opponents in group stage and playing a new opponent each game instead of home/away is interesting. Presumably this will mean more big club vs big club games in the group stage. The final gameweek could potentially be epic as there will surely be a tight race for 7th/8th spot, as well as the race for the play-off places and the race for the seedings.

But ultimately, at the end of it all, only 12 teams out of the 36 teams actually get eliminated at the group stage.. Seems a bit off.

I'm also against so many extra games for the players. There's an extra 2 group stage games compared to usual, and then there's an extra 2 games for the play-off round for the 16 middle teams.. And then if I'm correct, the losers of the play-off round, drop down to the Europa round of 32 equivalent, so there's a further 2 games? A potential 6 extra European games for some clubs? I'm aware there was already the round of 32 of sorts in Europa but I was always against those extra games too. Edit: ignore me, no teams drop down to Europa, if you lose your play-off you're eliminated completely. So it's a maximum of 4 extra games.

Teams are already stretched and suffering injuries.

On another note, not being in Europe was always an advantage for your league form compared to the clubs who were in Europe. But the advantage has just gotten bigger. Newcastle to finish top 4 might be a decent bet this season as they're the only club without Europe.
 
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In not bothering reading into the rules. Bayern will win all their games and then lose to either City or Real. Why should I concern myself with anything else?
 
Dominos said:
I've got mixed feelings over the new format.

The greater variety of opponents in group stage and playing a new opponent each game instead of home/away is interesting. Presumably this will mean more big club vs big club games in the group stage. The final gameweek could potentially be epic as there will surely be a tight race for 7th/8th spot, as well as the race for the play-off places and the race for the seedings.

But ultimately, at the end of it all, only 12 teams out of the 36 teams actually get eliminated at the group stage.. Seems a bit off.

I'm also against so many extra games for the players. There's an extra 2 group stage games compared to usual, and then there's an extra 2 games for the play-off round for the 16 middle teams.. And then if I'm correct, the losers of the play-off round, drop down to the Europa round of 32 equivalent, so there's a further 2 games? A potential 6 extra European games for some clubs? I'm aware there was already the round of 32 of sorts in Europa but I was always against those extra games too.

Teams are already stretched and suffering injuries.

On another note, not being in Europe was always an advantage for your league form compared to the clubs who were in Europe. But the advantage has just gotten bigger. Newcastle to finish top 4 might be a decent bet this season as they're the only club without Europe.
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Actually team's will not get dropped to europa league from league phase from this season i. Team's which don't qualify for quarters final in champions league are basically out of Europe. It's similar for Europa league too.
 
Acrobat7 said:
In not bothering reading into the rules. Bayern will win all their games and then lose to either City or Real. Why should I concern myself with anything else?
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Why would you say that, now that we have Win-cent at the helm? :confused:
 
Bodø Glimt have been running Red Star Belgrade ragged at times, finally got their first goal.

They’re fun to watch, I hope they make it to the league phase.
 
Samid said:
GK would still be an issue unless we can get Haikin to change nationality.
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Nyland stays! Otherwise, how else would Ørsta have any claim to football fame?

Bodø Glimt concede. I have a feeling they’ll need more than one goal to offset the score in Belgrade.
 
Why the incessant need to change the format of various cup competitions? There was nothing wrong with the current UCL model.
 
ForFuchsSake said:
Why the incessant need to change the format of various cup competitions? There was nothing wrong with the current UCL model.
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Seriously? The group stage has been boring and predictable for years. The likes of city and Madrid and Munich win all 6 games it's just a formality
 
Acrobat7 said:
In not bothering reading into the rules. Bayern will win all their games and then lose to either City or Real. Why should I concern myself with anything else?
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Well, Bayern could lose to both City and Real during the league phase so you're in luck.
 
Offside said:
Is the Europa format not the same?
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Haven't a clue.

I thought it was the usual 48 groups and then half the CL teams drop down after Christmas for the 15 knockout rounds. It's like they are just going out of their way to makes these competitions pointlessly convoluted.

Honestly think it should be open draw knock out football, no seeding, no coefficients or any of that nonsense.
 
Oranges038 said:
Haven't a clue.

I thought it was the usual 48 groups and then half the CL teams drop down after Christmas for the 15 knockout rounds. It's like they are just going out of their way to makes these competitions pointlessly convoluted.

Honestly think it should be open draw knock out football, no seeding, no coefficients or any of that nonsense.
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They've got rid of teams dropping down into the next competition.

Might be quite nice to play a different team in each group game rather than having to face Spartak Goatfeck home and away.
 
smoo298 said:
Actually team's will not get dropped to europa league from league phase from this season i. Team's which don't qualify for quarters final in champions league are basically out of Europe. It's similar for Europa league too.
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That's good, I never liked the dropping down to Europa system.

ChatGPT lied to me and clearly doesn't understand the new format either!
 
V.O. said:
They've got rid of teams dropping down into the next competition.

Might be quite nice to play a different team in each group game rather than having to face Spartak Goatfeck home and away.
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Didn't realise.

I was looking at the Europa league qualifier fixtures, some teams in there with great names. I hope Utd get one of these if manage to they qualify.

TSC Backa Topola
Jagiellonia Bialystok
Borac Banja Luka
Ludogorets Razgrad
 
ForFuchsSake said:
Why the incessant need to change the format of various cup competitions? There was nothing wrong with the current UCL model.
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Nah it needed a refresh. Wouldn’t surprise me if we are back to that format soon though.
 
I really like the new format, but we'll see how it plays out in practice. I agree that the old format was getting really boring.

I have a sneaky feeling that Arsenal or Barcelona might win it next season.
 
It's good that CL clubs no longer drop down to the EL but 2 additional games weren't needed. The footballing world is over-saturated already.
 
The format is too long winded and complicated, it'll likely be a bore fest until we get to the knockouts. It says everything that they need a super computer to even do the draw now... All to cram extra games in.
 
Mb194dc said:
The format is too long winded and complicated, it'll likely be a bore fest until we get to the knockouts. It says everything that they need a super computer to even do the draw now... All to cram extra games in.
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The group stage was a bore fest, at least this is a slight remix.
 
Mb194dc said:
The format is too long winded and complicated, it'll likely be a bore fest until we get to the knockouts. It says everything that they need a super computer to even do the draw now... All to cram extra games in.
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I think that if anything, the new format will guarantee less dead rubber games in the last few rounds.
 
MiceOnMeth said:
Seriously? The group stage has been boring and predictable for years. The likes of city and Madrid and Munich win all 6 games it's just a formality
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Deadly.

It adds an unnecessary amount of fixtures when players play far too many over the course of the season - accounting for domestic competitions and internationally for their country.

Plus, it will simply dilute the quality having additional clubs that are simply there to make up the numbers. For me, it seems overly convoluted and reflective of the changes in other major competitions (like the Euros and soon to be World Cup). It doesn’t add anything by including more - if anything, having fewer clubs and changing to a league model would work better.
 
Mb194dc said:
The format is too long winded and complicated, it'll likely be a bore fest until we get to the knockouts. It says everything that they need a super computer to even do the draw now... All to cram extra games in.
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Completely agree.
 
Mb194dc said:
The format is too long winded and complicated, it'll likely be a bore fest until we get to the knockouts. It says everything that they need a super computer to even do the draw now... All to cram extra games in.
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Nah its more fair than heated balls
 
ForFuchsSake said:
Completely agree.
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I think they've got it fundamentally wrong, more games is only going to bring in more money in the short term. Could see it at the Euros... Lots of poor quality games just hurts viewership in the medium and long term and will lead to less money.

What you actually need is fewer but much more high quality games, where there is something riding on the results. Games people will actually sit through for 90 minutes...
 
Is it better financially though for 'smaller' clubs if they manage to reach the group stage?
 
The penalty Young Boys got last night at the end of the game was ridiculous. I thought they'd changed the rules on giving those as handball but maybe that was a PL decision.
 
Shouldn't that be a red for Sparta? No attempt to play the ball and DOGSO.
 
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