Unseeded qualification? But then there'd be a chance that one of the same teams as always won't get in! It's bad enough that they have to let Man City in without risking some of the other big TV earners not getting in!
I'm surprised the bother with qualification at all, or with having teams qualify via league positions. They know what teams they want in the CL and they'll do their damnedest to make it happen, because that's what'll make them the most money. This is why the Champion's League ain't for Champions no more and why the Europa League is a waste of everyone's time. Back in the day, Arsenal Chelsea, Man City, Real Madrid would have qualified for that through the league and it'd have been a proper competition. Now it's ****ing Stoke.
They split the draw into two parts, the "champions route" and "non-champions route". So a 3rd / 4th placed team from a strong nation can no longer play the champions from a weaker nation, they only play other 3rd / 4th placed teams.
Always irks me when teams that are clearly not competing for their league title and aren't trying to compete for their title can get far in the competition because they don't need to worry about having players fit for the game at the weekends.
That aside, there needs to be a shake up of the Champions League. All those matches and it's the same few teams making the semis each year.
Not sure what they could do though. Have knockout rounds in neutral venues? Let the bigger sides get punished more for bad performance (and weaker side rewarded).
Would have been tougher but Udinese have sold a number of key players over the summer, so I doubt they're going to be as good a side as they were last season. Should be a couple of good matches though, Udinese are a very attacking side, they played some lovely football last season.
Not the most convincing performance from Arsenal against a side that is pretty poor (defensively they were all over the place). Udinese were absolutely knackered by the last 15 minutes and Arsenal did little to pounce on this and make the away leg comfortable.
They've now got to field a good side in the away leg that's sandwiched inbetween two incredibly tough games.
Wenger could be investigated over his rather blatent communications with the bench. Not entirely sure what he was thinking given he must've known there'd be camera pointed at him. UEFA may let him off and say there wasn't enough evidence but if he gets charged, I can't imagine UEFA treating a breach of their punishment lightly.
Didn't some manager in the champions league serving a ban once stay at the hotel watching the match on tv? Hard to prove you're phoning the bench if you're not in the stadium...
Could be a tricky second leg for Arsenal. Despite losing a lot of key players over the summer Udinese still look dangerous going forward, I felt they were very unlucky not to get an away goal last night, they play some good stuff.
Hopefully ESPN will show their matches more often this season. It was very annoying last season when they trotted out the same few teams each week for their Serie A coverage while Udinese were having consistently great matches and getting ignored (I'm sure the tons of Serie A fans on here will agree ).
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