Bye bye Bayern

[Michael Morris]

Knocked out by Villareal

[city1927]

Deserved it as well. Definetly the best team over both legs. Did not realise they only have a population of around 55,000!

[Bluebirdman Of Alcathays]

Nice to see but they can have another go next year. It needs someone to knock them off their Bundesliga perch.

[MacAdder]

Liverpool through to final then.

Chelsea Madrid game was superb, Chelsea unlucky I thought but lost it in that 45 mins last week.

[Joe Gillis]

Liverpool end up with benfica in the quarters and villareal in the semis.
Bet they're happy with that

[city1927]

Too many leagues are like that in Europe unfortunately and the new changes that are being proposed to the champions league make it very similar to the super league break away! It stinks, I much prefer the old European cup format. The champions of each country qualifying and playing two leg knockout ties (strange that it reduces lots of fixtures as well! which is what we hear all the time!) Seems like they had the correct format all along except got greedy!

[Bluebirdman Of Alcathays]

Too many leagues are like that in Europe unfortunately and the new changes that are being proposed to the champions league make it very similar to the super league break away! It stinks, I much prefer the old European cup format. The champions of each country qualifying and playing two leg knockout ties (strange that it reduces lots of fixtures as well! which is what we hear all the time!) Seems like they had the correct format all along except got greedy!

Yep. The new wild card feature in the Champions league is both nuts and par for the course. I doubt we'll see many Man U fans breaking into Old Trafford to protest that.

[OurManFlint II]

Liverpool end up with benfica in the quarters and villareal in the semis.
Bet they're happy with that

To be fair to Villareal they've knocked out Juventus and Bayern. They won the uefa cup last year and their manager knows how its done. Villareal are pure moneyball. Will they beat Liverpool, who knows. Is this a walk in the park for Liverpool, no chance!

[OurManFlint II]

Too many leagues are like that in Europe unfortunately and the new changes that are being proposed to the champions league make it very similar to the super league break away! It stinks, I much prefer the old European cup format. The champions of each country qualifying and playing two leg knockout ties (strange that it reduces lots of fixtures as well! which is what we hear all the time!) Seems like they had the correct format all along except got greedy!

Fully agree with the sentiment but i think the old European cup is defiantly looked on through nostalgia goggles. Aston Vila only had to play 1 or 2 recognized team over 5 rounds(?) and 1 was in the final. Glentorn were in the hat, so were hibs of Malta, and so were a Luxembourg team.

Football is better now, more then its ever been, and sure the champions league is bloated and only interesting in the 1/4 finals, but.....There are 36 leagues in Europe and if people think the winners only will make it an interesting competition where Madrid get to the final by beating TNS, The Glens, Bohemians, and Basel as something pure and better, fair play. I'll stick my head out and say that the old european cup was eye wateringly boring almost all of the time.

[Bluebirdman Of Alcathays]

Fully agree with the sentiment but i think the old European cup is defiantly looked on through nostalgia goggles. Aston Vila only had to play 1 or 2 recognized team over 5 rounds(?) and 1 was in the final. Glentorn were in the hat, so were hibs of Malta, and so were a Luxembourg team.

Football is better now, more then its ever been, and sure the champions league is bloated and only interesting in the 1/4 finals, but.....There are 36 leagues in Europe and if people think the winners only will make it an interesting competition where Madrid get to the final by beating TNS, The Glens, Bohemians, and Basel as something pure and better, fair play. I'll stick my head out and say that the old european cup was eye wateringly boring almost all of the time.

Fair point but it took Madrid 30 years to win another European Cup after their initial flurry in the 60s and that was after a change in format. Teams from all over Europe either won it or got to the final and so standards improved across the board and not just for the big four leagues. Even when Ajax have a good run their team is picked off by the rich and powerful the following summer. There's a need for a middle ground - better distribution of wealth, perhaps all champions go into the main draw with 2nd, 3rd etc having to qualify.

But that's all something of a dream and will likely go the other way. If teams like Villareal keep poking their noses in it might cause another change of format that rewards the biggest Instagram following or something.

[lardy]

Fully agree with the sentiment but i think the old European cup is defiantly looked on through nostalgia goggles. Aston Vila only had to play 1 or 2 recognized team over 5 rounds(?) and 1 was in the final. Glentorn were in the hat, so were hibs of Malta, and so were a Luxembourg team.

Football is better now, more then its ever been, and sure the champions league is bloated and only interesting in the 1/4 finals, but.....There are 36 leagues in Europe and if people think the winners only will make it an interesting competition where Madrid get to the final by beating TNS, The Glens, Bohemians, and Basel as something pure and better, fair play. I'll stick my head out and say that the old european cup was eye wateringly boring almost all of the time.

I agree with this. I don't love what's happened with the big clubs and their power, but as a competition the recent Champions Leagues have been far better than the old style European Cup. The quarters and semis regularly are the best matches of the season.

[Des Parrot]

Living outside of the UK for the last 18 months has certainly given me a different perspective. The champions league is a marmite tournament, it’s for fanatical countries or global audiences.

In France the football populace detest PSG, in Germany they detest Bayern. Where I live/work, in Poland, Czech, Slovakia, the support follows the success of their teams.

The Champions league is an elitist event and as such it’s become more exclusive at the expense of all bar 3 or 4 countries. The quarter finalists over the last decade have probably been limited to less than 8 countries.

More people in Germany will have celebrated Bayern losing than winning.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

The Champions league is an elitist event and as such it’s become more exclusive at the expense of all bar 3 or 4 countries. The quarter finalists over the last decade have probably been limited to less than 8 countries.

Exactly 8 countries. England, Spain, Germany and Italy have supplied the most, then France, Portugal, Netherlands and Turkey (Galatasaray in 2012/13).

In the last 10 seasons of the European Cup, there were 21 different countries represented in the quarter finals. On top of the previously mentioned 8 nations were Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Jocks, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Sweden and Yugoslavia.

England, Spain, Italy and Germany have generally always been the powerhouses of the European game. Here's a list of the percentage of winners from those countries combined for each decade:

1960s - 60%
1970s - 60%
1980s - 70%
1990s - 70%
2000s - 80%
2010s - 100%

Here'a a percentage of finalists from those countries combined:


1960s - 55%
1970s - 55%
1980s - 75%
1990s - 70%
2000s - 85%
2010s - 100%

[life on mars]

Knocked out by Villareal

World order changing ?