⚽UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread -- 2021/22 winner - Real Madrid!

[jayce]

Last season people predicted that Man City could beaten Tottenham and went to final but they ruined the chance. The statistic shows that every time City play big team in round of 16, they will lose eventually. No one really care if they would be disqualified for the next two seasons. So no reason that City has higher chance to qualify into next phase I think. It's still 50:50.

It cannot be 50/50 when City won the first leg, away from home and are going into the second leg(at the Etihad)with two crucial away goals, they have done half of the job and their chances of going through is obviously higher than that of Real Madrid, any kind of draw and if Madrid score less than two goals, then city go through.

I'll predict the second leg to end in a draw, which will see city go through, with how lethal peps men are in front of goal at the Etihad, they are definitely going to score, Madrid too, both teams will settle for a draw in this game Imo.

Probably there wouldn't be any fans in the stadium due to covid-19 issue, so there is no advantage to play at home then. I know completely what Madrid should do to qualify, and they will do for sure. Tho there were too many matches with remarkable comeback already in UCL so it isn't a new thing. Do you remember how Pep's Bayern lose in Allianz Arena with score 0-4? I know it's not a comeback's story, but in UCL everything can happen. Pep is amazing in Premier League, but he loses his touch in European competition since he left Barcelona.

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[$crypto$]

This new way of celebration reminds me of graphic some of the first football computers game. each player rejoices for himself.
I am also a Manchester United fan, but I would be sorry if Man. City does not destroy Real Madrid in the second leg. both deserve something like that. btw. If City does nothing this year in CL, with a possible ban it can affect very negative to the club and pull them back a few years.

I think Manchester City will try in the championship league season to win because otherwise they won't be able to enter the competition next season because there are sanctions against Manchester city.
Even though Manchester City is already in a 2-1 win in the second leg then this is the strength for Manchester City to be able to defend with Real Madrid in the second leg later if the match resumes.

[tbct_mt2]

I think Manchester City will try in the championship league season to win because otherwise they won't be able to enter the competition next season because there are sanctions against Manchester city.
Even though Manchester City is already in a 2-1 win in the second leg then this is the strength for Manchester City to be able to defend with Real Madrid in the second leg later if the match resumes.

They will try, definitely but with Champions League, luck is very important for club to be a champions. Sometimes, the winner or loser in Champions League is very thin and decide by personal mistakes or referee mistakes or unbelievable strikes of one player. Manchester City has enough strenght and quality to win the title but they have to fight for it and wait for their luckiness too.

After all major leagues resume, the Champions League will be resumed as a consequence of all successful resumes.

[bullrun2024bro]

The UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin recently gave an interview, saying that the UEFA wants to finish the current Champions League and Europa League season. Nevertheless there are no confirmed dates yet. August might be most likely.

UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin on the Champions League and Europa League: "We have an idea but we have to wait for the executive committee of UEFA to confirm the dates. I can say that the European season will be finished, if everything is as it is now, in August"

Source: https://twitter.com/iMiaSanMia/status/1262484782685929474

[Daniel91]

Very soon UEFA will have to make a final decision on the end of all European competitions, CL and EL.
One of the ideas seems to be to shorten all competitions and play only one game instead of two.
UEFA are facing the obstacle of the broadcasters, who don't like such an idea for understandable reasons 
Source: https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2020/05/19/5ec40c3eca474134778b45f2.html

[Upgrade00]

I think Manchester City will try in the championship league season to win because otherwise they won't be able to enter the competition next season because there are sanctions against Manchester city.

AFAIK, those sanctions would not be lessened even if Manchester City does win the UCL this campaign they will still not be able to compete in the competition next season, their only hope of getting into the competition would be if their appeal is approved and according to BBC the hearing has been set for 2nd of June;

Manchester City's appeal against a two-year ban from European club competition will begin on 8 June at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/52685442

[$crypto$]

I think Manchester City will try in the championship league season to win because otherwise they won't be able to enter the competition next season because there are sanctions against Manchester city.

AFAIK, those sanctions would not be lessened even if Manchester City does win the UCL this campaign they will still not be able to compete in the competition next season, their only hope of getting into the competition would be if their appeal is approved and according to BBC the hearing has been set for 2nd of June;

Manchester City's appeal against a two-year ban from European club competition will begin on 8 June at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/52685442

Yeah maybe this is his only hope this season for UCL champions, but if the comparison is granted it will be a little relieved for Manchester City because they can play the competition again.

But I think it is also difficult if the comparison will be granted because Manchester City has violated what has been applied.

We will see the verdict on June 2 according to the article.

[tbct_mt2]

Very soon UEFA will have to make a final decision on the end of all European competitions, CL and EL.
One of the ideas seems to be to shorten all competitions and play only one game instead of two.
UEFA are facing the obstacle of the broadcasters, who don't like such an idea for understandable reasons 
Source: https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2020/05/19/5ec40c3eca474134778b45f2.html

Shortening the rest matches in Champions League and Europa league like you said looks a good solution. But how they can decide which stadiums for those matches? Home stadiums are always big advantage and I don't know how it looks like if they decide to make a dice, roll, something like that to choose which stadiums will hold those matches. It is weird and unfair for related clubs.

There will be serious losses for UEFA this season but it will still be good for them if they can finish the season. At least they will have some sort of income and is a good foundation for next season during the weird pandemic time.

[tbct_mt2]

The UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin recently gave an interview, saying that the UEFA wants to finish the current Champions League and Europa League season. Nevertheless there are no confirmed dates yet. August might be most likely.

They can not play dumb and say that they don't want to finish the season for Champions League and Europa League. All players and leagues want to finish their seasons in order to have good conditions to move onwards to next season. The problems are local governments' responses to the pandemic and their plans to reopen nations, include sports.

Maybe we will have the most long lasting season in our lives but eventually we will see this season finished completely and find champions.

[LTU_btc]

Shortening the rest matches in Champions League and Europa league like you said looks a good solution. But how they can decide which stadiums for those matches? Home stadiums are always big advantage and I don't know how it looks like if they decide to make a dice, roll, something like that to choose which stadiums will hold those matches. It is weird and unfair for related clubs.

There will be serious losses for UEFA this season but it will still be good for them if they can finish the season. At least they will have some sort of income and is a good foundation for next season during the weird pandemic time.

As it was announced previously, UEFA will use neutral stadium for playoff  games, IIRC it will be Istanbul. It will be short few weeks tournament, something similar to World Cup. I think it's best possible scenario in current situation.

[Coyster]

One of the ideas seems to be to shorten all competitions and play only one game instead of two.

If they come to this decision, then what of some of the Round of 16 games that the teams have only played the first leg and are yet to go for the return match, are they going to end the tie with the first leg result, or will they start the one leg fixtures in the quarter final round.

As it was announced previously, UEFA will use neutral stadium for playoff  games, IIRC it will be Istanbul. It will be short few weeks tournament, something similar to World Cup. I think it's best possible scenario in current situation.

This is a good decision and I think the teams will stay in the city(instanbul)till the whole tournament is over, only eliminated teams would leave, to reduce the teams travelling too often since that's what they are trying to do by initially cancelling out two leg ties.

[Juggy777]

Shortening the rest matches in Champions League and Europa league like you said looks a good solution. But how they can decide which stadiums for those matches? Home stadiums are always big advantage and I don't know how it looks like if they decide to make a dice, roll, something like that to choose which stadiums will hold those matches. It is weird and unfair for related clubs.

There will be serious losses for UEFA this season but it will still be good for them if they can finish the season. At least they will have some sort of income and is a good foundation for next season during the weird pandemic time.

As it was announced previously, UEFA will use neutral stadium for playoff  games, IIRC it will be Istanbul. It will be short few weeks tournament, something similar to World Cup. I think it's best possible scenario in current situation.

@tbct_mt2 I don’t think they’ll shorten the matches because the whole point of resuming champions league was to make sure that they don’t suffer financial looses, hence we can definitely rule out the option of seeing a shortened version of the champions league.

@LTU_btc you’re correct but I feel that only Lyon and PSG will be playing their remaining matches at a neutral venue, unless they can convince the France government to give them the permission to play at home.

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"Paris St Germain and Lyon... will have to organise (matches) in France," Ceferin added. "If this is not possible, (they) will have to organise it at a neutral ground.
"If you cannot play in your country, then you have to organise it at a neutral ground... I don't see the reason why French authorities would not allow them to organise a match without spectators, but let's see. It's out of my power."

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/05/17/sports/soccer/17reuters-health-coronavirus-uefa-ceferin.html

https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2020/05/19/5ec40c3eca474134778b45f2.html

[DeathAngel]

I think it’d be ridiculous to shorten the CL 1/4 & semi finals to only one leg, I know it’s important to finish the competition but come on, surely it’s got to be 2 legged as usual.

[Daniel91]

I think it’d be ridiculous to shorten the CL 1/4 & semi finals to only one leg, I know it’s important to finish the competition but come on, surely it’s got to be 2 legged as usual.

I honestly think that the UEFA leadership is in a panic and that they will do anything just to end all the competitions somehow.
It’s all really a matter of money and how much UEFA would lose earnings from TV rights and other marketing rights if the competitions don’t end.
I believe that they would even be ready to organize everything on an isolated island, just to end everything and not lose their earnings 
No one asks about the health and safety of the players anyway.

[Darkoth89]

I think it’d be ridiculous to shorten the CL 1/4 & semi finals to only one leg, I know it’s important to finish the competition but come on, surely it’s got to be 2 legged as usual.

Why should it be ridiculous to shorten the remaining CL season? The teams from leagues that plan to restart or already restarted (Bundesliga), will have to play many matches in a short period of time. They players, even though they get paid massive money, are humans in the end and no machines. They need time to recover properly between the matches. And since all games will be without supporters anyway, there is not really a home-field advantage anymore.

The only thing that could become a problem is that TV stations already paid for 2 matches each round? So the teams would probably lose quite a lot of that TV money?

[cryptofrka]

It is 2 more games per club in an ideal situation if the club reaches the final. I really do not see the problem with it - the competition should be played the same as every year.

If this happened before the knockout rounds, I'd be for a 1-game knockout series but the difference is 1 game in the quarterfinals and 1 game in the semifinals - definitely not something that can disrupt the schedule of the clubs.

[Daniel91]

An interesting article in Marca: ''Chiellini on 2017 Champions League final: Juventus lost because we were exhausted''
I remember that match well and I always wondered what happened to Juve in the second half, why they played so badly in the most important game of their career and life.
Incredibly, they weren’t physically fit enough for that match.
Juve seem to be a born loser and in the most important matches, the finals, they always lack something.
Source: https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2020/05/25/5ecbe2fde2704edd6f8b45cd.html

[qomariah95]

An interesting article in Marca: ''Chiellini on 2017 Champions League final: Juventus lost because we were exhausted''
I remember that match well and I always wondered what happened to Juve in the second half, why they played so badly in the most important game of their career and life.
Incredibly, they weren’t physically fit enough for that match.
Juve seem to be a born loser and in the most important matches, the finals, they always lack something.
Source: https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2020/05/25/5ecbe2fde2704edd6f8b45cd.html

At that time, I saw that the quality of Real Madrid was far better than Juventus. So that Real Madrid enjoyed the game and was more dominating. And also other factors such as the champion mentality held by Real Madrid. Therefore Juventus could not survive in the second round.

[tomahawk9]

An interesting article in Marca: ''Chiellini on 2017 Champions League final: Juventus lost because we were exhausted''
I remember that match well and I always wondered what happened to Juve in the second half, why they played so badly in the most important game of their career and life.
Incredibly, they weren’t physically fit enough for that match.

Do you actually believe that? LOL Chiellini making up excuses  

What really happened that day was that CR7 obliterated Juventus and one of the best midfield trio of all time (Kroos, Modric, Casemiro,) absolutely dominated the entire game. Chellini, stfu! accept the fact that Juventus were embarrasing in that final, only conceded 3 goals throughout the whole CL season, but then conceded 4 goals in the final because Juve faced the best team in the world and didn't stand a chance  

On another note: exactly 2 years ago, this happened https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCvWSzJyHPk
 

[Coyster]

An interesting article in Marca: ''Chiellini on 2017 Champions League final: Juventus lost because we were exhausted''

I have no idea why Chiellini would bring back this memory of their demolition by Madrid and Ronaldo, if it's to make an excuse, there is none that can make up for their second half performance that day. If Juventus' players were tired, then it's their fault or maybe the fault of their fitness trainer or somebody working for them...the both teams had the same run in enroute to the final, so if Madrid were in better shape than them and showed more concentration than them, then they deserved to win, and they did.