When it was pure knock-out it was easier to win as well. Lesser clubs doing the odd giant-killing and the random selection meant that there was a good chance you could get an easy path to the final, especially if you got one that included a lot of league winners from the smaller leagues. The group stage means that in the knock-outs you are going to come up against more serious opposition on the way. In terms of effort and skill requirement, CL > EC.Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
I do think since The they have allowed letting the top 3/4 into the CL it has made the comp and our league and other league's boring tbh.
These people don't give a shite if the best teams don't get in the the Cl anyway only bothered about the money it will bring.
So can they really complain when they get a final like that. With Chavs pub teaming it.
Oi, geezers, what a load of self-loathing, pansyfied whining. Me, I’m taking a long, hot shower in sweet Spudenfreude water…
What was everyone's view of the 2nd group stage when that used to be around?
The league was expanded as many will recall in response to the threat of a breakaway league by the `big`teams all who wanted a piece of the pie that was excluded to them since they all couldnt be in the old European cup at the same time. It was the only solution at the time as the G14 would have it no other way. I disagree that the games are mostly crap. as can be seen with the final on saturday. It is not the football that is crap but the teams that elect to play crap football. I have now realised that "shit on a stick" is mostly a Chelsea invention as they have been a party to all the crappiest encounters in recent history. The recent europa cup games and the Bayern/Real semi show that football is always exciting when BOTH teams want to win the match.
What really ruined this final was the nonsense of excluding players for cumulative yellows in the biggest match of the year. They could just as well have made the bans effective for the following season and reaped the reward of a better spectacle. I think most would agree if Alaba and Gustavo et al had played yesterday. Bayern would have steamrollerd Chelsea. Plus we would have probably seen more comedy gold from the big man doing the splits or collaring Robben as he went by him
Basically dont blame the players, blame the lousy scriptwriters for the calamity show served up.
The only part I blame UEFA is thier insincere attempts to rigmarole the competitions to bring in so called lesser teams at the expense of the established ones. Isnt that what the Europa cup was designed for?
Wasn't a fan of it, made things too bloated.
Always felt the European Cup felt a lot more special, to qualify you had to achieve something which is very hard to do, win your own league. This meant that you didn't qualify for it all the time and that when you did it have that extra special something about it.
Nowadays getting 3rd/4th gets you in, so basically you don't have to win anything or even be anywhere near the winners of your league, makes a mockery of the competition to have this. I'd rather see cup winners go into it than 3rd/4th place, at least they've had to win something to qualify.
I don't see why you should be rewarded for losing to be honest.
I wouldn't say it was easier to win at all, a pure knockout competition gives you no 2nd chances, if you concede away goals the punishment can be severe, unlike now when you have 5 other group games to pull you out of the fire.
Straight knockout is always riskier, right now we can have an off day lose comfortably and still qualify as winners of the group. In 2 legged affairs if you underperform away, sometimes there's no way back and the away goal can be a killer.
There are barely any cup competitions where the best teams don't eventually get through, seeded or otherwise. You get the occasional mess-up in the group stage - Man Utd have twice, Liverpool have once and Citeh did too.
You say that we know who is going to go through so how can then you say those initial six games impinge on our season? Especially when those six games are finished by early December.
It was not a straight knockout. The ties are two-legged, that will obviously give an advantage to the better teams anyway.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote