The Champions League, a yearly competition held containing Europe’s best professional soccer teams. The place where footballing legends are made and powerhouse matches are aplenty. It has been played the same way for decades now, however this year is slightly different.
Typically it was formatted with eight groups of four teams, with the top two from each group moving on to the knockout stages, You’d play each team in your group twice, once home and once away. Simple enough right? Well the group stage began to get too boring, so UEFA (European soccer governing body) wanted a switch. Their solution? Thirty-six teams, eight games apiece, one massive table. Here, the top eight automatically qualify for the Round of 16, with nine through twenty-four competing in a playoff to see which eight teams will move on to the Round of 16. More games in the group stage, along with more games in the knockout rounds, means more excitement and more viewership. All of this is true. However it has also led to some interesting placements within the table.
Five games have been completed out of the eight for each team. Only one team has won all five, this being Liverpool, which is no real surprise as they are also atop the Premier League this year. Inter are second, a point out of the top spot in the Serie A, and FC Barcelona are third, currently atop La Liga. This all makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is how Borussia Dortmund are fourth, but somehow fifth in the Bundesliga, while Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich are thirteenth in the Champions League. Last year’s finalists were Real Madrid and Manchester City, two teams who usually breeze through the group stage, however they currently sit twenty-fourth and seventeenth respectively. PSG, the current leader of Ligue 1 and perennial powerhouse, are currently twenty-fifth, not even making it out of the group stage as we sit. None of this should really be occurring, yet it is, which is why I believe this new format is such a good idea. It creates more variability, and therefore excitement. For a competition that is seemingly dominated by the same few teams, this new format has breathed life into the competition, and I am ecstatic to see how it turns out. Even if you are not a football (soccer) fan, I would recommend picking a team and following along. This year anything can happen, so no better time to start watching than now.
Hey y’all! My name is Nate and I’m a statistics major with a sport and entertainment management minor. I am one half of the show “On the Bench” at WUSC. If you love sports, especially Gamecock athletics, you should give it a listen!