[Albion] Champions League final group fixtures

[Acker79]

I missed this game (was doing a sleep study) which is a shame as I love my football and watch practically everything I can involving domestic teams.

Every time I have seen AC Milan they have been frankly shit, a shadow of their former selves. Did they just turn up for this game, was it a smash and grab, or were Newcastle even worse?

I didn't pay a massive amount of attention, but a lot of comments on here during the game didn't rate Milan. But Milan did hit the post a couple of times, leading to the comment about the post being newcastle's motm. I don't know that I would call it a smash and grab, Milan were always in it, but it was a lot like Newcastle's recent games where they tire toward the end of the game and get weaker allowing their opponents to take control and get some goals. It wasn't a classic game, and it seemed to me everyone was going to ground in extreme agony a lot.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I only watched the first half. Newcastle were dominant, and when I checked later I was amazed and delighted by the result.

Milan didn’t look capable of getting anything out of the game.

 

[Kuipers Supporters Club]

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

Glad i'm not the only one who has looked at this, this morning.

 

[Simster]

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

We'd have 5,000 travelling to Lisbon I reckon. Some people got Ajax tickets in the home end without any hassle, and some of us would be trying that again.

 

[aolstudios]

Unfortunately Newcastle can now concentrate the league.

With current form, they're welcome to

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

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.

It's an average. So although Spain have nine teams in Europe this year, one of them didn't make it out of the qualifiers, dragging the whole lot down.

Not sure what happens if a country only has one team in europe and they end up winning the conference league, maybe that country will end up getting the extra place as a result, although expect UEFA would do something to stop that, knowing them.

 

[FCB]

It's an average. So although Spain have nine teams in Europe this year, one of them didn't make it out of the qualifiers, dragging the whole lot down.

Not sure what happens if a country only has one team in europe and they end up winning the conference league, maybe that country will end up getting the extra place as a result, although expect UEFA would do something to stop that, knowing them.

Spain had 8 teams (same as England) which is the maximum. 5 in CL (RM, Barça, Atleti, Sociedad, Sevilla), 2 in EL (Betis, Villarreal) and one in ECL but Osasuna didn't qualify for group stages. Now they still have 4 in CL (Sevilla were fully eliminated from Europe like United and Newcastle), Villarreal won their group in EL and Betis just lost against Rangers tonight to be eliminated from EL to ECL.

Even worst ranked countries like San Marino and Gibraltar have 3 spots in European competitions. Champions of these leagues play in CL qualifiers and two other teams from these countries in ECL qualifiers. If for example a Gibraltarian team would win the Conference league then that team would qualify directly to EL group stage next season and other teams from Gibraltar would still have to go through their respective CL or ECL qualifiers.