[Albion] Champions League final group fixtures

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Unfortunately Newcastle can now concentrate the league.

And potentially finding a new manager, if he goes a couple without winning now I would have thought, new direction etc!

 

[Stat Brother]

Most fans I reckon would prefer the collective experience of playing at Benfica or at the San Siro.

Agreed but that wasn't the point being made.

Galatasary shouldn't be the last choice just because of Zaha.
Galatasary would be an amazing experience in which to watch the Albion play knock out European football.

 

[Originunknown]

Anyone but Galatasaray please. Had enough Zaha for one lifetime, not a lover of Turkey either but would inevitably end up going..

Benfica would be incredible, Milan also but it'll have an edge to it.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

All getting that 5th place would do is shift the Europa League spot through league position from 5th to 6th.

It would then be 1-5 CL, 6th and FA Cup winners Europa League, League Cup winners into the Conference League.

7th and 8th would only qualify through league position if sides in the top 6 won the cups. Or if the team finishing 7th won both cups, 8th would then get the Conference League spot.

9th would never qualify through league position even if we got the 5th Champions League place unless the team finishing 6th, 7th or 8th won the Champions League or Europa League and both cups were won by sides qualifying for Europe through league position (which is quite the long shot).

So what i said then

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Anyone but Galatasaray please. Had enough Zaha for one lifetime, not a lover of Turkey either but would inevitably end up going..

Benfica would be incredible, Milan also but it'll have an edge to it.

Braga. Who doesn't want to go to Portugal. And it's winnable.

 

[Originunknown]

Braga. Who doesn't want to go to Portugal. And it's winnable.

Absolutely, would book either Portuguese destination in double quick time but Benfica would be my preference.

 

[Swegulls]

Five teams from one country in CL is ridiculous. Even four is three too many. Bring back the old European cup! Fewer matches would benefit the players, knock out from round 1. No games were some teams have nothing to play for.

But, it won't happen, I know.

 

[Falmer Flutter ©]

I know there are restrictions on drawing a team from the same association up to the QF, but what about from the same group? Ie, could we get Marseille again in R16 if either us or them come through the play-off round?

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Braga. Who doesn't want to go to Portugal. And it's winnable.

I have no particular desire to go to Portugal.
They're all winnable anyway, it's not like any of these teams are peak Barcelona.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I know there are restrictions on drawing a team from the same association up to the QF, but what about from the same group? Ie, could we get Marseille again in R16 if either us or them come through the play-off round?

No restriction on who you can draw in the last 16 other than you can’t play clubs from same association. So we could face Marseille again. It happened last year when USG and Union Berlin met in the last 16 having been in the same group.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

Are you sure?

I tried to look into this earlier, and the best I could find was that last year the draws weren't done at the same time. The "round of 16" draw didn't happen until February 24th (click the "Procedure" tab)...

UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw | UEFA Europa League 2022/23

UEFA Europa League 2023/2024 Round of 16 draw schedule confirmed. Find out who is facing who in UEFA Europa League 2023/2024 Round of 16.

www.uefa.com

Check the guide.

Draw for L16 (if we win tonight) not until 23rd Feb.

 

[Jim in the West]

It's not only an extra champions league spot but an extra European spot. A non top 6 league cup winner is a real possibility, leaving just the top 6 having European spots compared to a possibility of 8 or 9 at the start of the year

Hmmm. I hadn’t spotted the League Cup thing - yes, only Liverpool left of realistic Top 6.
I hate having to hope that Top 6 teams win everything!

 

[Motogull]

To win any group, let alone our brilliant one, would be a tremendous achievement and something many other clubs will never experience.

I want that so much.

 

[Stat Brother]

I'm still so pleased The HorsePunchers went out properly, unlike United, who stunk the place out then meekly and silently left.

At least The Geordies had 10 minutes, in the first half, when they were second in the group and celebrating like they'd won the whole fudging thing.

Tremendous effort all round.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Five teams from one country in CL is ridiculous. Even four is three too many. Bring back the old European cup! Fewer matches would benefit the players, knock out from round 1. No games were some teams have nothing to play for.

But, it won't happen, I know.

But how would uefa line their pockets without all that lovely dosh?

 

[Paskman]

It will be Galatasaray won't it and your know what will happen....

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

Them being out does massively hurt the chances of being one of the top two associations for 23-24 season though and getting the extra Champions League spot for next season. Those extra spots will always be awarded to the top two associations based on the previous seasons co-efficient alone.

I'm trying to work out whether this might tend to produce a closed shop like tier 1 ticket allocations.

Does having an extra team in Europe next season mean that those two associations will likely rake in more coefficient points and gain the extra places again the following season?

Or actually does drafting in a weaker team that's not up to playing in the CL increase the chances of early exits (like we've just seen with the Premier League's shaky 3rd and 4th placed teams from last season) that will dilute the association's coefficient?

But I'd probably need to create a spreadsheet and run some example scenarios to see what shakes out, and I don't think I care that much.

 

[Stat Brother]

It will be Galatasaray won't it and your know what will happen....

Yes and that's fine.

Some are treating this draw like it's the 2nd round of The Zenith Data Systems Trophy and they want Rotherham at home, in the hope we can get a big team like Blackburn in the next round.

This is knockout Euro-fudgin-pean football.
We've seen off Ajax and AEK so bring it flipping well on.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I'm trying to work out whether this might tend to produce a closed shop like tier 1 ticket allocations.

Does having an extra team in Europe next season mean that those two associations will likely rake in more coefficient points and gain the extra places again the following season?

Or actually does drafting in a weaker team that's not up to playing in the CL increase the chances of early exits (like we've just seen with the Premier League's shaky 3rd and 4th placed teams from last season) that will dilute the association's coefficient?

But I'd probably need to create a spreadsheet and run some example scenarios to see what shakes out, and I don't think I care that much.

The association co-efficient for the season is worked out as an average of the total co-efficient points scored by each club representing that association in that season. So while having more teams potentially leads to a higher score, a team having a poor season would impact the average at the end of the season. It's also calculated across all 3 European competitions so again just having an extra team in the Champions League may not have that much of an impact if other clubs do badly in the Europa League etc.

It shouldn't create a closed shop, but it's highly likely the two extra places each season will only ever go to England, Spain, Germany or Italy with France and Netherlands having an outside chance. In the last 10 years Spain have been in the top two every year except 2021-22 (Netherlands finished 2nd) and 22-23 (Italy finished second), in that same time frame England have been in the top two except for 2014-15 (Italy finished 2nd), 15-16 (Germany finished second) and 19-20 (Germany finished 2nd).

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Absolutely, would book either Portuguese destination in double quick time but Benfica would be my preference.

And that of the 1700 additional Albion fans who’d be able to get tickets!

Braga capacity 30k = 1,500 Albion
Benfica capacity 64k = 3,200 Albion