2024/25 Champions League Draw

[BaZ87]

The CL draw is about to get underway, which if history is anything to go by means it should be concluded by tomorrow morning.

Dale Johnson's wrote an article explaining how the draw and new League format will work:

Champions League mock draw: How Arsenal, Liverpool, Real Madrid could fare

We're going to take you on a guided tour of the new Champions League and show you how the draw and the format works.

www.espn.co.uk

 

[BaZ87]

Don't think the draw matters that much with new format, should be fairly even for all teams

Yep, everybody plays 2 teams from each pot so there's no advantage being a pot 1 or 2 side.

The complexity of the draw is something else though. I had thought there would have been mini groups drawn and then all the results were collated into a single League but that's not the case. The teams you play will be completely independent from the teams your opponent plays and requires some mad AI system to complete the draw due to all the clashes.

 

[BaZ87]

Ok....
City's fixtures:
Inter Milan (H) PSG (A) Club Brugge (H) Juventus (A) Feyenoord (H) Sporting Lisbon (A) Sparta Prague (H) Slovan Bratislava (A)

 

[BaZ87]

Our full fixtures not out yet but from pot 1 we've got Leipzig away, not bad.

 

[BaZ87]

I think we're now guaranteed either PSG or Real at home, I think.

 

[BaZ87]

Liverpool's full fixtures:
Real Madrid (H ) RB Leipzig (A) Bayer Leverkusen (H) AC Milan (A) Lille (H) PSV Eindhoven (A) Bologna (H) Girona (A)

That's not an easy set of fixtures.

 

[BaZ87]

I can't wait for the algorithm to crap itself when they get to Pot 4 and it's trying to figure out what possible permutations are still available and valid

Haha. I read a report last night that they were worried about Russian hackers too.

 

[BaZ87]

Is it like a league table at the end with all the teams with the top so many teams going through to knockout?

Yea. Top 8 qualify automatically. The next 16 play a play-off vs each other and the bottom 8 are knocked out.

 

[BaZ87]

There is a decent variety of games being thrown up, i'll give it that

Along with adding a couple more games, this was the big reason for the shake-up. You're going to get a lot of big matches early in the competition. Although there have been the odd exciting group, the old group stage was generally quite boring.

 

[BaZ87]

Arsenal's fixtures in full:
PSG (H) Inter Milan (A) Shakhtar Donetsk (H) Atalanta (A) Dinamo Zagreb (H) Sporting Lisbon (A) Monaco (H) Girona (A)

 

[BaZ87]

The only thing I'd say about Arsenal's fixtures is that they might have preferred a few of those home/aways to be reversed.

 

[BaZ87]

I think Villa have got the easiest fixtures of the PL sides.

 

[BaZ87]

Reckon that's 8 wins for Arsenal. Very happy with that draw.

Given Arsenal's historic performances in Europe that's some shout.

 

[BaZ87]

Not sure there is a valid comparison with the end of the wenger era or do you mean more recent?

I meant your entire history in Europe. You've never really done well in Europe, even when you've had a strong side. In both of the last two seasons, when you've competed with City for the League (so not like you were struggling), you've not really pulled up any trees in Europe. I think you're underestimating the difficulty of winning 8 from 8. Just look at your 6 group games + 2 round of 16 games from each of the last two seasons. Despite playing far inferior sides, you've only managed 5 wins.

I'd be surprised if any side wins 8 from 8. The law of averages suggests you'd slip up even if you were massive favourites in each game individually.

 

[BaZ87]

Oh I would put you down as favourites in each too but to win them all? That's a massive ask.

Edit: to put in into perspective, in all the years of the CL only Liverpool in the 21/22 season and City last season has a PL side won all 6 group games. This is an extra 2 games + harder games overall.