UEFA Champions League 2023/24

[Colly]

Finished in the top four though, can't knock that in a difficult group.

Hargreaves praising them for keeping the score low in a game against Bayern who had already finished top and clearly couldn't be arsed was nice to watch.

[Lineker]

A rare Kalvin Phillips start!

[Gazz]

Cock it

[DavidMarrio]

Another United ruining the English coefficient. Tut...

[METALMAN]

I always knew Newcastle were never going to make it out of that group.

[Lineker]

Quote

Liverpool have been denied a place at the expanded 2025 Club World Cup, and a potential windfall of around £50m, after Fifa confirmed the criteria around qualification for the tournament.

Back in March, the governing body decided that no more than two teams per country would be guaranteed participation in the controversial 32-team event, which will be played in the US between 15 June and 13 July. Now they have confirmed that Manchester City and Chelsea will be the only Premier League sides certain of taking part. Should Arsenal win this season’s Champions League, an exception would be made and they would be England’s third representative in a 12-strong European contingent.

Each Champions League winner from the period between 2021 and 2024 will qualify, guaranteeing the 2023 title holders City and 2021 winners Chelsea their spots. The second criterion is a club’s place in the Uefa Champions League coefficient over the same four-year spell. Liverpool had held hopes of taking part after reaching the final in 2022 and the last eight a year previously, but the door to their participation has now been closed.

Had the defining factor been Uefa’s club coefficient ranking over that period, which is separate from the Champions League measure, fourth-placed Liverpool would have qualified along with the leaders City as England’s two attendees. Manchester United, 10th in the rolling coefficient ranking and three spots below Chelsea, have seen any faint hope of involvement scuppered.

Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Internazionale, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and Benfica are the other European clubs certain to compete in 18 months’ time, with the remaining four spots still up for grabs. The tournament, whose expansion drew heavy criticism in Europe when it was dramatically announced last December, will be contested between eight groups of four and its finalists will be required to play seven games. Venues are yet to be confirmed.

There is particular concern around the implications for fixture congestion and player welfare. On Sunday evening the global players’ union, Fifpro, responded to the confirmation of its scheduling with a stinging rebuke of Fifa.

It said that, unless further safeguards are implemented, the month-long summer event “demonstrates a lack of consideration for the mental and physical health of participating players, as well as a disregard for their personal and family lives.” Fifpro accused Fifa of excluding them, and by extension the players, from discussions around mounting workloads and wellbeing.

The methodology, which results from seven years of discussions, was ratified at a meeting of the Fifa Council at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Jeddah. The Saudi Arabian city is hosting a more modest seven-team iteration of the Club World Cup, effectively the last of its kind. Manchester City, who made the six-hour flight after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and trained locally on Sunday evening, will face the Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds at King Abdullah Sports City in the semi-finals on Tuesday as they aim to become world champions for the first time.

The tournament began last Tuesday; its standout result so far saw the highly fancied Jeddah-based side Al-Ittihad, containing N’Golo Kanté, Fabinho and Karim Benzema, lose 3-1 to the Egyptian club Al-Ahly in the quarter-finals.

 

[Adam]

Liverpool and their players will surely be delighted to have "missed out" then.

[Baddar]

Plenty of complaints about the lack of big Last 16 ties, but on the flip side, the Quarters have the potential to be stacked.

[Colly]

TNT commentator just said Pedro is 36. I basically just crumbled into dust.

[Baddar]

Not sure if this is being put out to test the waters, but the new format has already been confirmed.

It isn't really clear if teams ranked 1 and 2, and so on, are based on how they finish in the league format or coefficients. Probably the latter.

 

[Bobfoc]

Basing it on coefficients would be rubbish, so they'll probably do it. At least using the league format as a basis would lend the otherwise dead rubbers featuring qualified teams a bit more significance.

[gunnar hendershow]

I read the group stage pots are based on coefficients. Basically ensuring you get a marquee matchup each matchday (as I believe pot 1 teams have to face two other pot 1 teams).

Seeding would then be somewhat influenced by coefficient but I suspect it's the two "group winners" or 1-2 in the overall group stage. I bet they get coefficient in there at some point as a tiebreaker that will likely not be used.

[Colly]

What an assist that is from Odegaard, made all the better by McCoist on comms. He should be prescribed on the NHS.

[Baddar]

"There was something going on, he had a bit of a tug" is quite the comment from Ally if you're hearing it without knowing the context.

[Kaney]

Porto made it very difficult for us, and you can see the lack of experience still in the team, but at the end of the day, fantastic result to build on from. Some excellent penalties and excellent work from Raya saving some. Odegaard remains incredible.

[Lineker]

6 hours ago, Baddar said:

Not sure if this is being put out to test the waters, but the new format has already been confirmed.

It isn't really clear if teams ranked 1 and 2, and so on, are based on how they finish in the league format or coefficients. Probably the latter.

The new format is so complex, that the draw is going to be made by computer!

 

Arsenal winning conversely helps whichever team ends up finishing 5th in the league. So, keep on trucking...

[DavidMarrio]

22 hours ago, Lineker said:

The new format is so complex, that the draw is going to be made by computer!

 

Arsenal winning conversely helps whichever team ends up finishing 5th in the league. So, keep on trucking...

Would you take Arsenal winning the Champions League if it meant Spurs qualifying. Just curious

[Lineker]

No. Normally I couldn't care less about how them lot do. But I also know how unbearable I was preparing to be should we have won the CL the year we made the final. It would be truly awful. So give me a year in the Europa over that hands down.

[Baddar]

Has it even been determined what's actually needed for 5th to be good enough?

[METALMAN]

I’m really hoping Arsenal win now. I’m going to become an Arsenal fan solely for the purpose of taunting Linkeles