Real Madrid players during the celebration of the victory against Chelsea in the 2022/2023 Champions League (REUTERS).
The wait has come to an end. After 101 days, the star ball will roll again. The last time he did it was at the Atatürk Olympic stadium, with Manchester City and Inter Milan fighting for a victory that Guardiola’s team ended up taking thanks to the solitary goal from Spaniard Rodri Hernández. He put the finishing touch to his best season as a professional in the game of games: the Champions League final.
The midfielder became the protagonist of the duel and hero of the English fans. His shot from inside the area gave the team led by Pep Guardiola their first European Cup. A goal and a display that earned him the MVP of the match and his candidacy for the Ballon d’Or. Starting this Tuesday, 31 teams will seek to overthrow the champion and touch the sky on June 1 at the legendary Wembley, the scene of the final.
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To reach the aforementioned stadium, the teams will have to overcome, for the last time, the invariable path since the 2002/2003 season formed by the group stage and double-legged playoffs. Starting next season, the Champios as we know it will cease to exist. It will go from 32 to 36 participating clubs. These four places will be achieved in different ways. One goes to the Champions Route from the last previous round; another will go to the third place in the fifth league in the UEFA ranking, currently France.
And the remaining two will go to the two federations with the best results in European competitions from the previous year. The results of this season will already count for the 2024-25 season, so the fifth in La Liga could participate in the Champions League next season, in the event that the Spanish teams achieve great results in Europe and improve the UEFA coefficient.
The group stage is over. Until now in the Champions League there were eight groups of four teams each. Each club played six games, three round trips with each of their group rivals. That in the 2024-25 season will be replaced by a league with 36 teams. This first phase will consist of eight games against eight teams in the league, so there will be no back and forth, nor will all teams face each other. Each team will play against two teams from each of the four pots.
The top eight finishers from the league phase would go directly to the playoffs and from 9th to 24th they will have to overcome an extra round where the winners will go to the round of 16 with the rest of the classified teams. Swiss system. Eliminated teams will no longer have the opportunity to join the Europa League. Once the playoffs were reached, a draw would be held and it would be round-trip, similar to the current format, except that two teams from the country can meet in this round.
Spain will be the country with the most representation in the group stage of the Champions League. FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad achieved their qualification via LaLiga, while Sevilla was resurrected in time by Mendilibar to win the Europa League and access the top European club competition. In it, Barça and Atlético de Madrid seek to scare away the ghosts of the past. The blaugranas have gone two seasons without advancing from the group stage, while the rojiblancos finished last year in fourth position. “The realistic objective is to overcome the group,” says Xavi before facing Antwerp. Both Spanish teams, with emergencies before starting.
The Atlético de Madrid players, resigned during the defeat against Porto in the 2022/2023 Champions League (REUTERS).
Almost 2,000 million euros invested later, PSG still has not achieved its long-awaited orejona. Since the arrival of Qatar in 2011, the Parisian team has squandered capital with the aim of assaulting the European throne and has only managed to play in one Champions League final. This summer, Kolo Muani landed in Paris for 95 kilos, Ugarte 60, Dembélé 50, Lucas Hernández and Barcola for 45 each, Kang-in Lee 22 and Xavi Simons 4. Despite the expense, Luis Enrique, in a results crisis during the beginning of the course, the pressure is taken off. “When a person, a team, a club become obsessed with something, it is not a good sign. You have to have enthusiasm, hope, ambition, but obsession does not work in any sector of life,” reflects the former Spanish coach.
The current edition of the Champions League is marked by the notable absences of Juventus and Liverpool. His baton is picked up by Newcastle and Unión Berlin. The historic English team had been asleep since the 2003/2004 season, the last one in which they traveled around the Old Continent listening to the Champions League anthem. The Magpies are going through a difficult time in terms of results, but they have players and a block to alleviate it. The arrivals of Tonali and Barnes strengthen a team led by Bruno Guimaraes and in which Isak stands out as a scorer and Botman as a wall.
The Union Berlin fans are looking forward to their team’s debut in the Champions League with even more excitement. It will be in the best possible setting: the Santiago Bernabéu. A stadium that breathes Champions League on all sides. The German team has experienced meteoric growth in recent years. He has gone from being on the verge of disappearing and competing in the German fourth division in 2006, to earning the license to dream in the all-star competition. All this in less than 20 years. The prize, seeing faces with the champion of champions of the competition and in his house. Let the whistle blow and the ball roll, the illusion has already done it.
2023-09-19 06:34:10
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