Eagerly awaiting the play-off round.
This season's Champions League is adopting the "Swiss system" for the group stage for the first time, known as the "league" phase (a characteristic format of chess, which involves many players). A notable difference from previous years is that each team faces eight different opponents, with each pair playing only one match (instead of the previous format of three teams playing two matches in each group). This format significantly increases randomness, preventing teams from thoroughly studying each other. Furthermore, because it's a single match, if a "big team" slips up against a weaker opponent, there's no chance to learn from the experience and win again in the return match.
Real Madrid (right) , the "giant" club, will have to play in the play-off round.
Preliminary results: all three of Europe's strongest clubs (according to UEFA rankings) – Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich – will have to play in the play-offs after the "league" phase. In the last five seasons, these teams have won the Champions League four times (in the other season, Manchester City reached the final but lost to Chelsea). Real Madrid and Manchester City will have to eliminate each other, meaning the round of 16 will be missing one of the two strongest title contenders. Last season's runner-up, Borussia Dortmund (currently ranked 8th in Europe), and the 5th-ranked team, PSG, will also have to play in the play-offs. The play-off round (two legs, taking place on February 11-12 and 18-19) will also feature many other big names: Juventus, Benfica, AC Milan, PSV, Sporting Lisbon…
BOLD GRADES APPEAR VERY FREQUENTLY
Bayern beat Dinamo Zagreb 9-2. Dortmund beat Celtic 7-1. Atalanta and Lille beat Young Boys and Feyenoord 6-1. Man City, Leverkusen, Atalanta, and Barcelona beat Sparta Prague, Red Bull Salsburg, Sturm Graz, and Young Boys 5-0… Scores with a margin of 3 goals or more occurred in 42 out of 144 matches (an average of one in every 3.4 matches). This is the highest percentage since the Champions League introduced a group stage in the 2003-2004 season. Never before has the Champions League had so few draws as this season (12.5%).
The unpredictable nature of the new format forces strong teams to try and win whenever they get the chance. On the other hand, teams must also strive to score as many goals as possible to have a good goal difference. With a ranking of 36 teams, there will be many instances of teams tied on points. UEFA has traditionally prioritized head-to-head results over goal difference when ranking teams tied on points. However, in this season's Champions League format, goal difference is the primary tie-breaking criterion. Depending on individual preferences, people may like or dislike this season's Champions League format. Regardless, this will be a historic tournament in terms of its uniqueness. As many as 68% of the matches in the "league" phase will be between teams that have never met in the Champions League before. Will there be many more exciting moments?
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/champions-league-dai-gia-chen-chuc-o-vong-play-off-185250202230522819.htm
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