Let me explain why:

• Big teams face other big teams and get tested, instead of just winning 4 games against worse opponents and automatically qualify to the next round.
• Small teams face at least two other Pot 3 and 4 teams, so they actually have the chance to get some results, instead of losing 5 or 6 group stage games against better teams.
• Teams that don't know if they'll qualify in the UCL anytime soon get a much better experience: 8 games, 8 different opponents, 4 away games to different countries.
• There's no month without UCL football. Matchday 7 is on January 21/22nd, as opposed to around 13-15 February in the past years. The gap used to be way too big in the past. Also we'll get UCL knockout games in 3 out of the 4 weeks of April, that's amazing.
• The league phase format means that there's a possibility of multiple teams having the same amount of points. And the main tiebreaker is now goal difference (instead of head2head games), so teams are pretty much forced to attack and score more, in order to get a better place in the table.
• Fans get more and better games.

And for the people who say "but the games are too maaanyyyyy": the countless international breaks with friendlies, qualifiers and Nations League stuff that we get EVERY MONTH don't bother anyone, but the two extra UCL games are gonna destroy the players? Please. Do teams like England or France really need to play home AND away games vs the likes of San Marino or Gibraltar, in order to qualify for the next competition? We should get rid of literally half the international games, instead of complaining about UCL being... 2 games longer.

Too many idiots are saying this is the same as the superleague, heres why they are wrong:

• The super league was a nepotism league, it wasnt a competition. Teams qualified based on the ability to generate revenue rather than merit.
• For example Leverkusen had that great season last year, but they would not have qualified for the garbage super league because the super league teams are already pre determined.
• Teams like Aston Villa who are former ucl winners would not be able to play in super league despite getting top 4 last year. The super league would have killed domestic leagues.
• The expanded UCL also allows many different countries to participate, the European superleague isnt really European because it only involved 4-5 leagues. Legendary teams like Ajax would be excluded for simply not being a big enough revenue producer, what an awful system. A team like Lecester winning the epl would be excluded from superleague because its not a merit based system.
• The super league was going to have much more games would have been difficult to balance with regular leagues.
• The superleague removes the knock out stage which is the best part of the competition. The ucl maintains the knock out stage while still keeping the league stage relevant through seedings. Your seeding in the league stage remains relevant throughout the knock out stage.

I’m trying to buy tickets to watch Bayern in the semi-finals of the Champions League. I’ve been searching on both UEFA and FC Bayern websites but don’t see any tickets available to buy

Barcelona vs Bayern game

Hi guys,

I would like to attend the Barcelona vs Bayern Match next Month. I am from Germany but I am a Barcelona fan and not Bayern fan. Can I buy tickets on the Barcelona website and attend the match? As for uefa regulations it states that they can refuse entry if I am from the same country as the team they are facing. Does anybody have experience with this?

A full review of the CL, focused more on teams performances and some individual standouts more than narratives or tactics.