UEFA Champions League 2014/2015

TikTikTikTikTik said:
The seeding is the last 5 years:

http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/

City are barely above Spurs! LMAO.

Utd will likely drop out of the 1st pot after this season and possibly into the 3rd if a couple of other teams do well (city). Liverpool will need to have 3 good seasons to get back up there. But the EL generates nearly as much points as the CL these days. Both Benfica and Atletico have benefited hugely in seedings from their wins.
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Another big problem is there is no decay in the rankings, so what you did 5 years ago is as important as what you did last year. The weightings should include a big decay (so that last year is much much more important than 5 years ago) and also some weighting should be given to where you finish in the domestic, not all of the weighting but definately some.

You know the system is wrong when Schalke are seeded ahead of Dortmund, when they have always finished behind Dortmund in the league for the last 4 years and have always been worse than Dortmund in Europe except for 4 and 5 years ago. Basically Schalke are there only because back in 2010/11 and 2011/12 Dortmund were not in the CL.

They need to make the seedings a lot more dynamic, we always see the same teams just squeezing into pot 1 and now (with all the rules about teams from the same country being split in different sides of the draw) the groups are getting a little repetitive; Schalke in Chelsea's group again, Dortmund in Arsenal's group again, Bayern and City time after time and this time with CSKA again (although with Roma as 4th seeds its even harder), Oporto and Shakthar again, Barca and Ajax again. Also there is a massive difference in the quality of some groups - with all due respect group H is pretty lightweight, yet group E is a complete group of death, we saw the same last year with Arsenal, Dortmund and Napoli in one group and group A (I think) being fairly easy.

Once you get in a seeding bucket it's very hard to get out of it which is great if you're in the upper pots but a nightmare if you are in the lower pots.
 
Kanouté, it was "champions-only", but the group stage format was in place at the time.

It makes harder on smaller teams to reach the final or the latter stages, but since we are "crowing" the best team in Europe it's better that way.
 
this conversation reminds me of something....
i voiced my concerns about the seeding process (and about the whole format of champions league) exactly 3 years ago.... ironically it was late august, right after the umpteenth disappointing draw (just like today).
http://forums.evo-web.co.uk/showpost.php?p=2312957&postcount=143
http://forums.evo-web.co.uk/showpost.php?p=2314851&postcount=148

today i don't even bother watching champions league games anymore... at least not until the knockout stages, which are a little less boring and predictable than the group stage games.
 
Kanouté said:
as for this year, there could still be a chance of you getting barcelona, bvb from pot 2 then. not that it's a pointless suggestion but that system change wouldn't really change things dramatically.

current format

bayern - city
barça - paris
atletico - juventus
arsenal - dortmund

pot 1 allocated for champions

city - barça
bayern - arsenal
paris - dortmund
atletico - chelsea

of course this is a worst case scenario but you shouldn't expect that such a rule change would work wonders.

clearly the key for the pot 1 is consistency. and city haven't been consistent(neither that successful) enough in CL yet to warrant a place in pot 1. I don't see anything wrong with that.

the thing I don't support with the old format(pre-98) is "only champions allowed" rule. since 98, out of 17 CL champions, only 8 teams entered as league champion to that year's competition. many teams change blatantly over the transfer windows, some of them strengthen, some weaken. that old rule was mostly bringing down the quality of the competition.

the only rule I'd change on the current format would be allowing teams from the same country draw at any stage starting with groups. the only thing that matters to be champions or not imo.
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You can still end up with tough groups but on average the top seeds get easier groups.
On average, this would mean more upward and downward mobility, something football fans want in general. Obviously the G14 clubs don't want this hence the current format.

There's also something to be said for champions entering the Champions League at the top.
 
UEFA has announced that the 2015 Champions League final will be held on the Olympiastadion Berlin.
Berlin_2014_2015_UEFA_Champions_League_final_(2).jpg

:BOP: :BOP: :BOP:
 
Zenit deserved to win but this referee must have some mental problems.
Why Zenit players could make the faults that they want and not receive a yellow card and Benfica players always get yellow card?!
 
Anderlecht played very well in Istanbul and this with a team with 5 teenagers.
At the end the lack of experience showed and Galatasaray scored a very undeserved goal.
Everybody here in Belgium expected zero points and heavy defeats...

Well done.
 
gerd said:
Anderlecht played very well in Istanbul and this with a team with 5 teenagers.
At the end the lack of experience showed and Galatasaray scored a very undeserved goal.
Everybody here in Belgium expected zero points and heavy defeats...

Well done.
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Anderlecht didn't play very well, Galatasaray played very bad. Every team can take points against Galatasaray in this state. Galatasaray plays without wingers. So just keep the center busy and you already have a draw against them. I think that Anderlecht will finish 3rd in this group based on yesterday.
 
WEtongelre said:
Anderlecht didn't play very well, Galatasaray played very bad. Every team can take points against Galatasaray in this state. Galatasaray plays without wingers. So just keep the center busy and you already have a draw against them. I think that Anderlecht will finish 3rd in this group based on yesterday.
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Maybe Galatasaray played bad because Anderlecht was good ?
Football is a sports where two teams play against each other, so it might well be that one team playing bad may be caused by their opponents ?

But fans of bigger teams always refuse to give credit to underdogs...their team failed and the other didn't play well...
 
gerd said:
Maybe Galatasaray played bad because Anderlecht was good ?
Football is a sports where two teams play against each other, so it might well be that one team playing bad may be caused by their opponents ?

But fans of bigger teams always refuse to give credit to underdogs...their team failed and the other didn't play well...
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I am not underestimating Anderlecht. I respect them because they are a very young and a talented side. On Turkish television they were telling each other that Tielemans was just 17(!) years old. That's something WOW in Turkey. So I am not saying that Anderlecht is a weak opponent.

Galatasaray in home games however put their opponents under heavy pressure, well in the past they often did. They are wellknown because of that. In the last years with Mancini and now with Prandelli it is gone, vanished. They play in a system that is easy to defend without wingers.

I doesn't matter if that's against Anderlecht or against a much weaker opponent in the Turkish League. They struggle every single game.
 
Soooo deserved to score against City. And no one better to score than Boateng, great development that he made in the last two years.
 
Godotelli said:
Beyond sick of referees atm.
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You were crap. Nicking a soft penalty at the end wouldn't have been just imo. It was a penalty though.

Despite having a team full of internationals in every position, City still play like desperate underdogs in Europe. You need to be more assertive, you have the players.
 
Soft? it was blatant. And right in front of the ref.

Yaya was crap but the rest all had solid games. Nothing spectacular and probably too conservative at times but not crap. Not sure what performance has to do with getting correct decisions tho

Team selection was wrong imo. Nasri is a possession player, Milner should have started on the left given we were going to be playing mostly on the counter. Could have really done with Fernando tonight. Fernandinho had a good game but he's not an anchorman.
 
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Think City were good, they at least rotated players some were fresh while others looked stretch. Navas wasn't making those runs like he did vs Arsenal. Silva is a joy to watch and Yaya might of drank from the local water spigot on NT duty.
 
azur said:
Shsss...Brahimi is sh**! Nothing to see really...
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Yeah well everybody is writing about him but you'll still manage to sell him for 50M€+ (I believe his next destination would be Bayern Munich after Robben or Ribéry goes to MLS).
 
Unfortunately for Porto, I think they sold a high percentage of his rights immediately after they brought him in.
 
Nationalties in #UCL:
1. Spanish: 82,
2. Brazilian: 76,
3. German: 56,
4. French: 44,
5. Portuguese 36,
6. Italian 34,
7. Argentine 24.
11. American 19
12. English 17.

That is shocking ... Thank God for Liverpool playing! #UCL
 
Average age of the Anderlecht team that drew against Galatasaray: 22 years and 221 days, that is almost 18 months younger than the second youngest team (Ajax of course, who by the way had a very good draw against PSG and this after a disatrous first half and a lovely second).
 
Damjan said:
Unfortunately for Porto, I think they sold a high percentage of his rights immediately after they brought him in.
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They bought him for €6,5m and sold 80% of the economic rights to a fund for €5m. But without that operation they wouldn't have got him. Think the initial plan was for him to be a bench player, behind Adrián, Tello and Quaresma. But he outplay them all.
 
bebo said:
Nationalties in #UCL:
1. Spanish: 82,
2. Brazilian: 76,
3. German: 56,
4. French: 44,
5. Portuguese 36,
6. Italian 34,
7. Argentine 24.
11. American 19
12. English 17.

That is shocking ... Thank God for Liverpool playing! #UCL
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Good goals for some of the Italians (Immobile, Balotelli..) :D

Apparently at least 1 Italian player was involved in all of Tuesday's matches.
 
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