So that was the new fandangled Champions League. A format that this SBOTOP journalist has criticised since its inception, and I’m not going to change my mind now.
Sure, the final night of group stage matches played across the continent produced some excitement, drama and plenty of Champions League 2025 highlights. In fact, to me it was akin to a last day of a season when the stakes were high virtually from top to bottom. But, overall, what was the advantage from a footballing perspective (the financial gains were obvious). Answer on a postcard but I just didn’t see it.
As predicted, and I don’t mean to be a clever ass, the quality of football didn’t improve; there will probably be more fatigued players than ever come the end of the campaign and, most tellingly of all, the eight-match group stage format did exactly what was intended – increase the chances of the European superpowers qualifying for the knockout stages.
That, presumably, is what many backers of the crassly thought-out Super League in 2021 wanted, as opposed to the inconvenience of entertaining the smaller fry.
Because if anyone saw the threat of elimination hanging over the likes of Manchester City and PSG tonight as the firmest vindication of the new Champions League format, they missed the point. The fact a number of Euro giants lost three times and still qualified was exactly what was always going to happen.
You can guarantee, all those clubs will figure highly in the Champions League 2025 betting odds – even if a few of them are likely to meet each other in the play-offs – but don’t be surprised if a side defeated three times in the group stages goes onto be crowned champions of Europe.
Ultimately, Liverpool topped the table from Barcelona, despite fielding half a reserve side and going down to a narrow defeat as PSV Eindhoven, a club aiming to roll back the years, enjoyed a night to remember.
Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, and Aston Villa – plaudits to them in their first campaign at the top level in Europe for more than 40 years – completed the top eight and will avoid a play-off encounter.
Spare a thought, though, for the likes of Brest. Granted, their first fixtures in the competition were relatively kind to them but, holding an automatic qualification spot, after six games, was simply something they could not sustain over eight matches.
In other words, football’s natural order has been restored, as expected all along.
The setting of their final group game was a story in itself.
For a start, their own stadium was too small and basic to comply with the regulations of Europe’s governing body, UEFA, so they hosted the mighty Real Madrid in Guingamp, an hour’s drive away. It took protests from supporters to halt plans to play future knockout fixtures further afield in Paris.
Brest is a small fishing town in northwest France with a football club to match its modesty. Comparisons with Real are futile: a turnover of £42 million versus £840m, one season in the Champions League (this one) compared to Real’s 55, and zero major trophies in contrast to the Spaniards’ 103.
This is not to criticise Carlo Ancelotti’s magnificent men incidentally, more to indicate that the gap was never going to be sustained the more fixtures there were to play. It wasn’t.
A feast or a flop? To me the new format was neither. But it didn’t half make it even more difficult for the clubs with the fewest resources. And the media spin and propaganda on the tournament – laughable. Only now can the tournament really begin.
For those of you who can’t wait for Friday’s draw, here’s a taster. So Celtic or Manchester City will play Real Madrid – with the other taking on Bayern Munich. The winner of those ties will take on Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16. Liverpool will play Monaco, Brest, PSG or Benfica in the last 16. Arsenal will play Feyenoord, Juventus, AC Milan or PSV. Aston Villa will take on Sporting, Club Brugge, Atalanta, or Borussia Dortmund.
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