The 2024/2025 European Competitions Thread

[harrybarracuda]

New rules for the Champions League:

The new competition will begin with a “league stage”, with all 36 clubs ranked against each other in one big league table. The table will be determined by points, three points for a win and one for a draw.

Each club will play eight matches in the league stage, with four at home, and four away. But the matches will be against eight different teams, you’ll only play each opponent once.

After that, the competition will move to the knockout stages.

The teams finishing in the top eight in the league stage will progress directly to the round-of-16, whilst teams nine to 24 will enter a two-legged play-off round to try and join the top eight.

Teams finishing 25th or below in the league stage will be eliminated, and they won’t drop into the Europa League. The losers of the play-off round will also not drop into the Europa League.

From the round-of-16 onwards, the competition will play out as it normally does, with two-legged knockout ties until the single-leg final.

The knockout stages will be partially seeded, with your league finish giving you an easier path against worse opponents if you finished higher in the league table. But there will still be a seeded draw to determine your exact opponents.

[Edmond]

[Edmond]

Plus further changes for 25/26

whilst teams 9 to 23 will enter a two-legged play-off round, the 24th placed team will play Qatar to try and join the top eight.

[harrybarracuda]

[harrybarracuda]

Another 'splainer.

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsle...ything-you-ne/

[harrybarracuda]

As painful to watch as ever.

[harrybarracuda]

English clubs are going to suffer with this running into January.

[harrybarracuda]

Well after all that:

Arsenal: PSG (H), Inter (A), Shakhtar (H), Atalanta (A), Dinamo Zagreb (H), Sporting (A), Monaco (H), Girona (A).
Aston Villa: Bayern (H), Leipzig (A), Juventus (H), Brugge (A), Celtic (H), Young Boys (A), Bologna (H), Monaco (A).
Manchester City: Inter (H), PSG (A), Club Brugge (H), Juventus (A), Feyenoord (H), Sporting CP (A), Sparta Prague (H), Slovan Bratislava (A).
Liverpool: Real Madrid (H), Leipzig (A), Leverkusen (H), Milan (A), Lille (H), PSV Eindhoven (A), Bologna (H), Girona (A).

The order will change as they now work out the dates, which are supposed to be released tomorrow.

[harrybarracuda]

How very Scottish.

[Joe 90]

Golden boots Kane on for a hatric tonight!

[harrybarracuda]

Fucking hell I know we're short of players and all, but...

Arsenal’s 14-year-old sensation Max Dowman has scored for the Gunners in their UEFA Youth League clash with Atalanta today, becoming the youngest ever goal-scorer in the competition’s history.

[cyrille]

Humblebrag.

[harrybarracuda]

Humblebrag.

Sybille's been watching Harry Potter again.

[harrybarracuda]

A decent away point for The Arsenal in Bergamo, with an amazing double save from a penalty by Raya keeping the clean sheet. The turnips who kept backing Ramsdale have crawled back under their rocks.

Might as well fly straight to Manchester since they fixed it for us to play the cheats in a couple of days.

[Joe 90]

Might as well fly straight to Manchester since they fixed it for us to play the cheats in a couple of days

Getting the excuses in early!

[harrybarracuda]

Getting the excuses in early!

Yes, it's bad enough that you're a bunch of cheats without them making it even more difficult.

[harrybarracuda]

Decent performance against PSG.

Table looking a bit more respectable now.

[Joe 90]

Martinez for Villa tonight was exceptional, great result for the best team from the Midlands .

[Joe 90]

Gundo the captain gets his first goal for the only team to come from Manchester since his return!

[harrybarracuda]

Martinez for Villa tonight was exceptional, great result for the best team from the Midlands .

Charlie Hughes would have been proud of that goal.

[cyrille]

It was a decent game considering there was only one goal.

Kane should have been booked in the first half.

I'm surprised David Cameron isn't on their new mural.

[Joe 90]

Beaten by a Greek team first since records began.

England looked rattled under their new management .
On paper with the formation of England you would have expected a several goal thrashing.

England!

Nobody expects...

[david44]

What's a Greek Urn?

3 points away at Wembly

Trioloe Shwarma with tzatziki 3 Lions on a skewer

[harrybarracuda]

A lucky win for Arsenal who didn't play well at all. Villa beat Bologna and top the standings.
If Liverpool and The Cheats win tonight, the English teams will be looking good in this current league format.
Although obviously The Cheats shouldn't even be there.

[cyrille]

Clearly Arsenal are, as 'euro-parlance' would have it, 'not in a good moment'.