Champions League

[Birdy]

Easy answer.... tv money.

Sure, but it still does not make sense to insert the constraints before pairing the teams.
The TV constraints could be fulfilled later on just by determining the A-F name of each group

 

[te amo barca]

I hope our away game vs Dynamo is not one of the later games. Playing under 0C will be too much for our players Dembele will injure himself in warm-up

 

[Messi983]

 

[El Gato]

The constraints are kind of ridiculous and hugely unfair.
They first put strongest teams in a group (which is immaterial whether your group will be named A or F), and from then on due to the constraints the whole thing is built on several 'fixing by elimination' which creates unbalanced groups.

Why can't they draw the fucking groups with the only constraint being teams from the same country not being able to play each other, and after everything is done they will determine group number and TV constraints will be factored in there.

Can't draw Ukrainians with Russians for instance.

 

[Morten]

Juventus vs Barca will be interesting, Ronaldo at Camp Nou for the last time(?).

 

[eaman]

Not the most interesting draw ever. Maybe city's problem in the knockouts stem from their lack of a challenge in the group stages all these years. Can only remember them getting two big teams over the last decade and they were barca and bayern. I know Lyon beat them in the group stage last year but still. Also how did shakhtar end up in pot 2 giving real an easy group

 

[Birdy]

Can't draw Ukrainians with Russians for instance.

Yeah, I am aware of that.
Still, that's a constraint that could be included in the first phase along with the simple constraint of not drawing teams from the same country.

The most unfair balance is because of the TV constraints.
There was a very clear example today: If you recall, when they drew all teams from the second pot, at the end only City and United were left, with PSG's and Porto's groups only open.
I can't think of any reasoned argument why there should be a constraint at that point of the process, and with these groups open.
Yet, there was a TV constraint that made City go the easy way to Porto's group.
That's entirely unfair.

 

[Vilarrubi]

United to go out.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Imo Juvetus and Barca is the only 'top match' in the group stage and this only because of Ronaldo and Messi.

 

[El Gato]

The most unfair balance is because of the TV constraints.
There was a very clear example today: If you recall, when they drew all teams from the second pot, at the end only City and United were left, with PSG's and Porto's groups only open.
I can't think of any reasoned argument why there should be a constraint at that point of the process, and with these groups open.
Yet, there was a TV constraint that made City go the easy way to Porto's group.
That's entirely unfair.

What TV constraint is that and why's it there?

 

[Richard.H]

Group H is great, rooting for Man U and Leipzig

 

[khaled_a_d]

What TV constraint is that and why's it there?

Some teams can't play in same days, like Barca and RM
So once RM was selected in group B, we were bound to one of last 4 groups, with one of them being Sevilla, we had 3 optionsSG, Zenit & Juventus

 

[Andresito]

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

LOL never saw such a penalty shoot out

 

[gregorrin10]

LOL never saw such a penalty shoot out

Why are you posting this here though? This is the CL thread, and the match is EL qualifiers.