European Leagues.

[lurganblue]

Villa gave it a rattle but PSG quality won it in the end.

[Blowitupref]

Premier League teams fixtures for the Champions league group phase.

Man City
At home to PSG,Sporting,Napoli,AEK Athens

Away to Barcelona,Porto,Leipzig,Lens

Liverpool
At home to Atlético Madrid,Porto,Villarreal,Lens

Away to Inter, Club Brugge,Fenerbahce,Lask

Arsenal
At home to Real Madrid,Dortmund,Lille,Sabah

Away to Bayern Munich,Real Betis,Slavia Praha,Napoli

Aston Villa
At home to PSG,Dortmund,Fenerbahce,Viking

Away to Barcelona,Club Brugge,Galatasaray, Slavia Praha

Man United
At home to Bayern Munich,Roma,Leipzig,Sabha

Away to Atlético Madrid,Sporting,Villarreal,Como

[AustinPowers]

Premier League teams fixtures for the Champions league group phase.

Man City
At home to PSG,Sporting,Napoli,AEK Athens

Away to Barcelona,Porto,Leipzig,Lens

Liverpool
At home to Atlético Madrid,Porto,Villarreal,Lens

Away to Inter, Club Brugge,Fenerbahce,Lask

Arsenal
At home to Real Madrid,Dortmund,Lille,Sabah

Away to Bayern Munich,Real Betis,Slavia Praha,Napoli

Aston Villa
At home to PSG,Dortmund,Fenerbahce,Viking

Away to Barcelona,Club Brugge,Galatasaray, Slavia Praha

Man United
At home to Bayern Munich,Roma,Leipzig,Sabha

Away to Atlético Madrid,Sporting,Villarreal,Como

[/b]

Even as a follower of  United, these are 8 matches I'll  be avoiding

I loved  watching the CL in the past. Now it's an absolute  farce.

[Armagh18]

Premier League teams fixtures for the Champions league group phase.

Man City
At home to PSG,Sporting,Napoli,AEK Athens

Away to Barcelona,Porto,Leipzig,Lens

Liverpool
At home to Atlético Madrid,Porto,Villarreal,Lens

Away to Inter, Club Brugge,Fenerbahce,Lask

Arsenal
At home to Real Madrid,Dortmund,Lille,Sabah

Away to Bayern Munich,Real Betis,Slavia Praha,Napoli

Aston Villa
At home to PSG,Dortmund,Fenerbahce,Viking

Away to Barcelona,Club Brugge,Galatasaray, Slavia Praha

Man United
At home to Bayern Munich,Roma,Leipzig,Sabha

Away to Atlético Madrid,Sporting,Villarreal,Como

[/b]

Even as a follower of  United, these are 8 matches I'll  be avoiding

I loved  watching the CL in the past. Now it's an absolute  farce.

Obviously first time in what feels like ages in it for United, but it's probably lost it's magic abit with this new format, not sure why it needed changed in the first place. Evidenced the last couple of years by English teams flying in the league phase while the big teams just tipped away at their leisure but when push came to shove in the knockouts the cream rose to the top.

[Milltown Row2]

It's super leagues by stealth, the formation of a European league will happen, this format has changed over the years and it will slip in and no one will actually care

[AustinPowers]

It's super leagues by stealth, the formation of a European league will happen, this format has changed over the years and it will slip in and no one will actually care

That's exactly what it is

people went mad  when they tried to bring in the super league , but no one batted an eyelid  when this new CL format was introduced. Mad

[Captain Obvious]

It's super leagues by stealth, the formation of a European league will happen, this format has changed over the years and it will slip in and no one will actually care

That's exactly what it is

people went mad  when they tried to bring in the super league , but no one batted an eyelid  when this new CL format was introduced. Mad

Super League was elitism at it's finest. At least this competition the lesser teams aren't closed out.


I'll check the odd weekly round up of results and might watch some brief highlights however it will be the 29th of January before I sit down to watch a full Champions league game.

PSG have won the Champions League the last two years,  In this new bloated league format they finished 11th,15th with 14 and 13 points.  In other words it's shadow boxing first up before the knock-out stages that separates the pretenders from the contenders.

[Milltown Row2]

It's a poor show in Porto..

Can't see City pushing Arsenal this year

[jcpen]

Parrott scores again and his first Champions League goal, if he had signed for West Ham he'd be playing against Bolton tonight 

[Tony Baloney]

Parrott scores again and his first Champions League goal, if he had signed for West Ham he'd be playing against Bolton tonight 

Seville might get a turn out of people going over from Ireland to the matches.

[Main Street]

It's super leagues by stealth, the formation of a European league will happen, this format has changed over the years and it will slip in and no one will actually care

That's exactly what it is

people went mad  when they tried to bring in the super league , but no one batted an eyelid  when this new CL format was introduced. Mad

Super League was elitism at it's finest. At least this competition the lesser teams aren't closed out.


I'll check the odd weekly round up of results and might watch some brief highlights however it will be the 29th of January before I sit down to watch a full Champions league game.

PSG have won the Champions League the last two years,  In this new bloated league format they finished 11th,15th with 14 and 13 points.  In other words it's shadow boxing first up before the knock-out stages that separates the pretenders from the contenders.

Its not exactly super league elitism. It's a compromise of sorts to cut the super leagueism off at the pass.
There are 2 components  the CL league stage and that is then succeded by the traditional CL knockout stage involving 24 teams in all. There is big money for the  league phase and progress through the knockout competition, however there is a very decent slice of the overall funds made available to the many 'minnow' teams who win a round or two or even make it to the Conf league stage. You never would have had that distribution of prize money  with that original superleague system as was put forward by desperate over spent big clubs.  The current UEFA CL format buried the super league coup attempt but some compromise was made.

[Blowitupref]

Two of the proposed 15 Super league teams Tottenham,Chelsea aren't in any European competition this year and another two Juventus,AC Milan are in the Europa League

Handful of "Lesser teams" reached the last 16 of the Champions league the last two years,  Bodo Glimt for example caught the publics interest and while the current format is bloated at least the window of opportunity for underdogs remains open.

[johnnycool]

I prefer this new format to the old groups of 4 where everyone played each other twice.

It is probably a step to the much vaunted Super League with some of the lesser teams getting parachuted in a year or two's time by one means or another.