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GWT: Champions League - League Stage

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So Mbappe is absolutely cooked right in the prime of his career? Seems like it.
 
Power Man said:
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Bensebaini has really turned his form around from last season. He was, without sugarcoating it one bit, really bad. He was always decent for Gladbach so might've just taken some time to get used to things.
 
cgf said:
Still don't understand how this is any different from the old format. There were blow out matches every round back then as well. Now at least we don't have dumb groups that ensure a mediocre team advances, or that a top team will have to play EL :dunno:
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You had groups of 4 where everyone plays everyone. Twice.
99% of the time, the 2 best teams had a fair chance to go through, based purely on their own performances.

The schedule plays a stupidly important role in any league where everyone doesn't play everyone, there's a much better chance that an inferior team gets a favorable schedule and takes advantage of it.

Just look at this season.

PSG has 4 pts so far. PSG's schedule: Girona, Atleti, Arsenal, City, Stuttgart, Bayern, PSV, Salzburg.
2 La Liga, 2 EPL, 2 BuLi - 2 from non-top-4 leagues.

Dinamo Zagreb has Celtic, Salzburg and Slovan Bratislava.

There's a fair chance that Dinamo gets more points than PSG just by winning those 3 winnable games (they've won 2 and are still to play Celtic).

At the same time, I watch the Dinamo games cause it's a Croatian team.
(though tbf I only watched bits yesterday vs BVB as Dinamo had their entire midfield out, starting GK, half the defence and the #1 striker... it was never gonna happen, was just a case of how many they concede... had to play a 17 year old with zero appearences at senior level in midfield).

But I also don't watch Sturm-Crvena Zvezda. And games like that. Nor do I expect neutrals to watch Dinamo - Slovan.

Dinamo is a Croatian team and I'll take it if they go into the next phase, but in no serious world are they in any way comparable to PSG - and there's a realistic chance that happens, based purely on luck and schedule.

They fairness and integrity of the competition suffers because UEFA wanted more money.


So, IMO, there's a MUCH bigger chance of mid teams advancing and serious teams suffering to schedule, than in the prior format.
 
Live in the Now said:


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He's better defensively but that's about it
 
Corto said:
You had groups of 4 where everyone plays everyone. Twice.
99% of the time, the 2 best teams had a fair chance to go through, based purely on their own performances.
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The two best teams most often went through, yes, but often the 3rd in group X was better than the 2nd in group Y. I don't see how that is really any different to what we have now.
 
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What we have a now is a clownish schedule.
When teams from the same group don't play the same teams, you're bound to have ridiculous schedules when compared and unfair draws.
There was a study of strength of schedule and some teams had REALLY easy paths while others had REALLY harsh ones.
That is not fair.
 
JoVel said:
The two best teams most often went through, yes, but often the 3rd in group X was better than the 2nd in group Y. I don't see how that is really any different to what we have now.
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Bingo. If a big team s*** the bed in the old format they were still screwed, but sometimes they'd be screwed even if they didn't s*** the bed just because of their group. Is being screwed by your schedule worse than being screwed by your group?

Given how many teams move on to the next round, I'd say it was clearly worse to get screwed by your group...
 
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JoVel said:
Bensebaini has really turned his form around from last season. He was, without sugarcoating it one bit, really bad. He was always decent for Gladbach so might've just taken some time to get used to things.
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He was always good before the transfer .

Had to adjust to a new club and then he got injured last season.

Hopefully his current form carries over to rhe next game vs Bayern
Only 4 players have scored 2 braces vs Bayern since 2000, and Ramy is one of them.
 
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Duchene2MacKinnon said:
Everyone is fooling themselves in thinking they won't win the CL.
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Yeah I mean I hate this point and laugh 6 months before the season is over culture in general, but that’s the meta right now.

people acting like Madrid is in the toilet and we get genius takes like this:



Id say they are doing it for clicks but there is no way that they actually don’t believe this
 
Scandale du Jour said:
Dude, I'd settle for a Copa at this point.

We are not playing well and there is no signs of us improving and half the squad is injured.... and rumors are we are not going to add anyone in January.
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Just cause you're not going to add anyone to the roster doesn't mean you won't spend on getting better results in the second half of the season :sarcasm:
 
Scandale du Jour said:
Dude, I'd settle for a Copa at this point.

We are not playing well and there is no signs of us improving and half the squad is injured.... and rumors are we are not going to add anyone in January.
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I haven’t seen Madrid play a big game they deserved to in like a decade and yet here we are. They are masters at winning ugly. Only thing they know how to do.
 
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