New-look Champions League produces jeopardy, but giants survive

Football
  • 4 Hours Ago
European football body Uefa hailed the "more dynamic" new format of the Champions League as a huge success after the first phase concluded on Wednesday while all of the continent's biggest clubs survived to reach the knockout stage.

"It's nice to have a bit more jeopardy," Real Madrid's English superstar Jude Bellingham told Uefa.com after the reigning champions rounded out the league phase with a 3-0 win against Brest in France.

He was not referring to that particular game, one of 18 played simultaneously on the eighth and last matchday, a frenzied night which saw a total of 64 goals fly in around Europe, including one for Bellingham himself.

It was rather a reference to the fact that the new format -– with all 36 clubs playing eight games against eight different opponents -– took some getting used to for every club, even the biggest fishes.

Madrid were themselves caught out as they lost three of their first five matches. Manchester City certainly faced jeopardy as the competition's winners in 2023 needed to win their last game at home to Club Brugge in order to avoid elimination, and found themselves 1-0 down at halftime.

They came back to win 3-1 to avoid humiliation and reach the knockout round play-offs, and Club Brugge also went through.

Uefa introduced this new format to replace the group system which had been in place for two decades, doing so in response to the threat of a breakaway Super League involving a select band of giant clubs.

French side Lille pulled off a remarkable performance to finish seventh and go directly into the last 16, beating Real and Atletico Madrid along the way.

"I have really liked this format. There is room for surprises," said Lille's Thomas Meunier.

In contrast, Real coach Carlo Ancelotti has not hidden his displeasure at the increase in the number of games in the league phase, to eight from six in the old format.

"My idea of football is that we must reduce the number of matches to diminish the impact on the players," Ancelotti said.

– AFP/SuperSport