UEFA Champions League

Happy to be back in the CL of course.

If the KO stage would start today with our current squad and availability I could see us win the whole thing.

The new format is bullshit imo. What will be left of our squad after 8 or even 10 matches?

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This new format doesnā€™t look very exciting. Itā€™s a bit annoying to not have the return games. The additional games are just pure stupidity, or more probably greed. But letā€™s see how it unfolds.

Not really interested in who our opponents are. If our lads are good enough, theyā€™ll go through against anyone.

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Unnecessary additional games and further bloating of the competition aside, I like the idea of playing a variety of teams. The group stage was a grind, anyway.

Iā€™m interested only in the sense that itā€™s nice to be playing different clubs rather than the same old moneybags over and over again. Apart from Real Madrid, AC Milan, and RB Leipzig, I donā€™t think weā€™ve played any of the other clubs recently?

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Funny, until 21/22, weā€™d only played Milan twice (Istanbul and Athens finals), and now weā€™re sick oā€™fuckinā€™ sight of 'em.

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https://x.com/Football__Tweet/status/1829842320088289367

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We finish off with Gerona away, Lille at home and PSV away.

Not to sure you could ask for a better finish to the group stage. We may look to be struggling midway through the comp, but that finish should be 9 points so could play a huge part in seeig us fly up the ladder o the final matchday

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Nah.

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When I say struggling, I ment we might be in 2nd spot :wink:

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Itā€™s not the group stage anymore. Itā€™s the SUPER LEAGUE

If I understand it correctly teams get seeded into pairs 1&2, 3&4 5&6 ect.

So you get an advatage by finishing 2nd not 3rd, but not get any advantage by finishing 3rd over 4th.

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The first matchweek is champions league exclusive which means games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. No EL or ECL matches during that week.

Arsenal play Atalanta away on Thursday night and on Sunday they play at the Etihad. Iā€™m sure theyā€™ll be happy with that :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Edit
Before Atalanta they play Spurs away on Sunday.

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With all the new format in the UCL etc , you would think UEFA sees fit to have the finalist of the Europa get entry as well.

Yeah Iā€™m glad we avoided the Thursday night that week.

https://x.com/TheAthleticFC/status/1830616905255657569

:black_medium_small_square: ā‚¬60 (Ā£50.50; $66.43) in the Champions League
:black_medium_small_square: ā‚¬40 (Ā£33.68; $44.29) in the Europa League
:black_medium_small_square: ā‚¬20 (Ā£16.84; $22.14) in the Conference League

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Good move but personally, I think the C/L could have been slightly lower.

Maybe go something like
50 in Champions League
30 in Europa League
20 in Conference League

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Agreed. Think itā€™ll be crucial to win our first 2 games before we have a tricky 3 matches that we will surely drop points in.

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Neither Milan nor Bologna have won yet in Serie A. I expect Milan will bounce back, but we have them in just two weeks - the timing is good.

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Or we could be the big team spark to get them firing.

Of course it could always play out that way. But Fonseca has very little training time to pull that team together, and just one match (9/14) in between. They are struggling with the switch to a very different defensive system (from pressing to zonal marking). With Inter the next match, we may not even see their best line-up. Fonseca could be in trouble already.

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