Two+ years of COVID and you mind is thinking of this catastrophic scenario?
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City.
Just caught up on this as Iād been on a meeting. I didnāt really want Portuguese, Spanish or Italian opponents because we have already had them but Iāll take Inter and a trip to the San Siro again.
ā¦ and United vs Atletico. What a pity that they both canāt lose.
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Iām not too concerned. We beat AC Milan with the kids, who are only 1 point behind Inter at the top of the table. Juve languish down in 6th. Atalanta are probably the most complete side across Serie A, a league thatās on the slide of late.
They have some decent footballers Inter - the likes of their main CBs, keeper are decent. Dzeko and Martinez are decent up top, and they have Barella. Some experienced heads in the team with Sanchez, Perisic, and Vidal. But, I still fancy us to outscore them over two legs.
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Weād better straight up beating them in the first leg.
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More than happy with the draw. We should marmalise everyone left in the competition bar City, Chelsea, Bayern and PSG. Weāre leagues better than everyone else.
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First leg (away): 15/16/22/23 February
Second leg (home): 8/9/15/16 March
If we come out unscathed from the AFCON, we will be OK
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What, like Barcelona did to us?
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Another draw please. Just for giggles.
So away goals no longer used, but goals for still count correct?
Away goals scrapped - so if at the end of the 2nd leg, the teams are drawing ion aggregate (regardless of where the goals were scored) - there will be extra time, and then penalties if required.
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So it wasnāt easy enough for City to draw Villareal, they had to give the Sporting Lisbon!!!
I liked the away goals rule as it added an extra permutation to proceedings.
Still, the new rules are fine, and it is a straight fight, with equal weighting on home and away. At our best we create lots of chances and score for fun, and while CL defenses should be well organized at this stage, there wonāt be many teams who will outscore us. We can easily have a dominant spell where we pile on 2-3 goals, and then the opponent is stuck between a rock and a hard place, as we arenāt too shabby on the break either.
The benefit of winning the CL group appears to be minimal this time. Chelsea have a better draw, having finished runner up in their group.
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Yes, but sexy goals are weighted more heavily, as are goals scored in the last 5 mins. What is the final score after a 3-2 win? Who the fuck knows, but itās great telly that there is always something to play for in those last 5 mins.
Or, thatās the F1 approach to football at least
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I really donāt think so, in fact I struggle to recall a knock-out round draw with such a dramatic division. The runner-up pool was actually pretty thin, just 3 teams one might want to avoid. Lille were unfortunate as the weakest group winner to draw one of them.
Yeah itās an advantage that often appears overstated in terms of quality of sides you can still draw, but this year, partly because of Chelsea and Atletico being invalid, the odds were very firmly stacked in our favour of getting a good draw. The fact we got one of the 2 supposedly tough sides that were possible and weāre still heavy favourites I think is important as well.
Momentum in ties is really important and so having the opportunity to get the tie to a place where youāre at home and on top gives little opportunity for the other team to wrestle it back, even more so with the double peril of away goals being removed.
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With the division between the āhavesā and āhave notsā becoming more prominent each seasonā¦ maybe it is now time to throw all teams in the same potā¦ you play who you get drawn against
Edit:
Meant at the 16 stageā¦ Make the money the incentive for finishing top of the group or runner-up
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Might as well go the whole hog and just make away with the group stages - straight up 32 team knockouts.
Would reduce fixtures cutting out the group stages. If thatās a concern, make it a American style best of 5 - every game is decided on the night.
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In the year we won, we defeated 3 strong national champions.
I mean, sooner or later we will have to face big teams.
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No incentive then in the group stages to try to finish first? Some groups would be over after 4 rounds.
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