They draw the round of 16 though right?
Like pot 1 is all the seeded teams and then pot 2 is the teams through. Draw 1 and then draw from pot 2. You’ll know your QF and SF routes following the draw
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No, it’s seeded after the first 8 games, top eight sit it out. Top eight then seeded against those who qualify for the R16 (home second leg). The seeding for the R16 sets the format for QF, SF, and final… So, 1st (9th), 3rd (11th), 5th (13th), and 7th (15th) sit on one side and the 2nd (10th), 4th (12th), 6th (14th), and 8th (16th) teams sit on the other side…
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According to ESPN it’s a modified tennis style bracket. In the play off 9th and 10th will play one of the last two sides but there will be a draw to determine the specific match up.
So there is theoretically and advantage for finishing 2nd rather than third, but no difference between finishing 3rd vs 4th
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Huh? So, they think 1-2 are seeded but not 3-8? Regulation states top eight are seeded. Are they saying 1-2 play 15-16, but the rest are random bar the home leg second?
Wait, ESPN? That dunce Nicol didn’t open his mouth did he?
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If I’ve got this right, then it appears that there would be draw for the Round of 16 in which the seeded teams play the unseeded. The UEFA site says there will be a draw:
“To strengthen the synergy between the league and knockout phases, and to provide more sporting incentive during the league phase, the pairings of the knockout phase will also be partly determined by the league phase rankings, with a draw which likewise determines and lays out the route for teams to reach the final.”
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There used to be this thing called the European Cup. It was a knock-out cup competition between all the European league champions.
Then they called it the Champions League, except you didn’t have to be the champions, and it wasn’t really a league, just a group stage before a knock-out cup.
Now they have something that resembles a giant league, except it isn’t and you don’t have to play everyone. It’s more like the FIFA ranking table, and your position has as much to do with the random teams that you have had to play, and that determines some knock-out play-offs, which then feeds into… something that looks remarkably like the European Cup.
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This garbled format is just a step on the way to a full European league.
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Well after seeing the draw I am liking this 8 different opponents system.
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3 things in life nailed on - taxes, death and City getting easy draws/
Honestly their “group” is so fucking easy again
Of course not. It was an illustration of how the draws supplements league position based seedings. If you understand how teams who finished 9th and 10th are treated people should be able extrapolate to every other pair of placings.
So the teams who finishes 11th or 12th will play one of the teams who finishes 21st and 22nd, and a draw will be used determine that specific match up.
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I dont think this is the best way to judge the challenge for one of the top sides, but City have one of the highest ave coefficient for their set of opponents.
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This feels quite accurate from how I felt yesterday
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So in fact hardly any difference top to bottom of that table…
I think it is probably a better gauge of quality of opposition than ranking by the UEFA coefficient as that score tends to undervalue the quality of rising teams from strong leagues without a recent history in UEFA competition. Teams like Leverkusen, Girona, and Bologna. The counter argument is experience in the competitions is really valuable and it can takes teams a year or two to get used to the higher frequency of important games, something the Opta rating doesnt account for.
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Only logical answer is, time to create a new ranking that takes both into account!
Don’t break your head trying to figure out how the draw for the next round will work. UEFA will figure it out before it starts.
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Or we just win all 8 of our games and make it academic.
Anyway, was reading a piece by Dale Johnson last night and they have run a bunch of simulations and predict it will likely only require 14 points to get one of the top 8 spots.
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