On that point – I know why UEFA want to stage in neutral venues, and allocate tickets to sponsors and locals as well as the teams, but Baku? Really? When it’s a fair bet that it’ll be W.EU teams in the finals. OK, 4xEPL is an anomaly but you’d predict the finalists to come from Germany, Italy, France, Spain or England really wouldn’t you?

It’s the least they can do, given the fact that both competitions so heavily favour teams from the big 5 countries. It’s ridiculous that the likes of Ajax and Celtic have to play qualifying rounds, despite winning their respective leagues.

Favour teams ? By that you mean having more of the better teams in the competition ? Lets be honest, having an extra team from Azerbaijan or Moldova etc isn’t exactly going to bring a lot to the spectacle of the game if you have to remove someone like a Spanish/English/French team etc is it ?
Sure it will be great for the particular team on the day.. but to then see them drubbed by the big sides isn’t really helping the profile much ? We as fans want to see good matches.

Of course you want to see good games, but should the Dutch champions really have to qualify? I mean really?. Should be called the elite league, not the champions league.

Well i’d expect after a better showing this year, they may not have to next time. But until this season the dutch sides have done nothing to justify an instant qualification, like Celtic. Until they beat some teams, why do they deserve an instant qually ? It’s a rankings based things based upon previous performances of that league/tier.

What have Liverpool or Spurs done to deserve instant qualification then? Be in the right place at the right time is the answer. 🙂

Well, apart from Liverpool being in the Champions league final the year before ? Not all English clubs get instant qualification. Liverpool in 2017/18 had to beat Hoffenheim in the pre-qualification stages before going through to the Champions League proper. The other teams are based upon the PRemier Leagues performances over previous seasons, with Man Utd, City, Arsenal, Chelsea etc regularly making the Semis or indeed winning the CL.

should the Dutch champions really have to qualify?

Possibly not and I take your point on the ‘Champions’ league – but seedings are based on the performances of the nation’s teams in the competition previously (Ajax went out to Nice pre group stages in 2017, got humped by ten men of Rostov in 2016) and also the national team itself (which is misleading seeing as most teams are hardly representative of the nation itself nowadays, but FWIW they’ve not qualified for the Euros or WC since 2014)

I’d love it to go back to the national champions plus the holders of the trophy but think of the money in matchday and TV sponsorship they’d be passing up….I think I’ve spotted the problem!

It’s ridiculous that the likes of Ajax and Celtic have to play qualifying rounds, despite winning their respective leagues.

Winning their respective leagues? All Celtic have to do is turn up. If Celtic were playing in England they’d be mid-table in the Championship, just above Brentford.

I’d extend it the other way and have PSG qualify too 😉

Well, apart from Liverpool being in the Champions league final the year before ?

Qualification is based on last season Weeksy, not previous glories.

Aye, spot on Jon, all about cash and brown envelopes. To think, if it did return to the old format, the UEFA cup would be the bigger competition than the European cup!

If Celtic were in the playing in England they’d be mid-table in the Championship, just above Brentford

Utter nonsense! You’re just bitter cos the old lady of Manchester is creaking like one of Rooneys gilfs these days! 🙂

Qualification is based on last season Weeksy, not previous glories.

Qualification yes, overall seeding, no. That’s based upon performances of the ‘league’ in the major competitions on previous, previous seasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient

The order of the four pots – each comprising of eight teams – is determined by Uefa’s club coefficient ranking, which calculates a mark for each club taking into account their record in European competition over the past five seasons.

Victory for Benfica in their play-off tie with PAOK Salonika – confirmed by last night’s 4-1 second leg rout in Greece – secured the Portuguese side a place in Pot 2 and ended Liverpool’s hopes of moving up into the second tier of seeds. Though Benfica lost all six of their Champions League fixtures last term, they have been an ever-present in Europe’s top tier for the last five campaigns and reached the quarter-finals in 2015/16 as well as the Round of 16 the following season.

Read more: Liverpool’s Champions League group and fixtures – in full

Liverpool, meanwhile, have only qualified for the Champions League in two of the last five seasons. They may have reached the final last time out, but Benfica have pipped them to Pot 2 on the basis of long-term consistency.

All four European finalists have lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers this season.

this is not something that has been said before.

All four European finalists have lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers this season.

this is not something that has been said before.

And which (ex-‘clue’) PL team took 6 points off Wolves this season? Junior school logic says Town should be World Champions however it don’t work like that which is a shame.

We’ve just put some kit in a local hotel for Manchester City. 3rd time we’ve done that at this hotel for the visiting team and the previous 2 both lost at the Amex.

Ro5ey, I’ve fallen in love with the Teal! its dirty to say that but…i ordered a shirt last night! only a £15 ebay special which surely is a fake and wiil fall apart in 3 washes but well…the club don’t get any extra money for a shirt sale so I saved myself £30 and I’m hoping I’ll come to my senses and only Lilywhte will do by the time the fake falls apart

Oh and pot 1 – 7 biggest league winners plus the CL holder, pot 2 and 3 are on coefficient. Spurs scraped into pot 2 for this year as the lowest seed at a coefficient of 19. so spurs of liverpool will be pot one, possible both (or man city will be the 2nd in pot one) from runnig down the list of teams currently in the group stage spurs proper already i count at least 5 that aren’t pot 1 (league winners) above spurs, but liverpool are a fair bit higher. Liverpool should be pot 2 if not 1, Spurs….pot 1 obvs!

Well we’ve been called back to put more kit in for City. Exactly what happened on the last two occasions, it’s not looking good for them

i’m still being brought to tears

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xNSTVvc9B_XsY8qk7iPTBvnR9tfoGXq3/view

need sound up

What’s everyone doing for the matches then? I’m off to my Liverpool-supporting mate’s to watch them suffer. Its the hope that kills you….. 😀

Should be a corker this! Given the absolutely bonkers nature of what’s happened so far this this week, I doubt it’s going to be straightforward. What an end to the season? The standard of football from Liverpool and City has been on another level completely. It’s been absolutely brilliant to watch

Enjoy, you lot!

Just got to the pub. Got the last free table although it’s possible the crinklys will all piss off once they’ve finished their roast dinners.

Pub in Apsley, I don’t even ask me where Apsley is, not far from Hemel.

Got to collect my boy from Scout camp at 5, so was the only way I’d get to see it as it’s 90 min from mine to collect him

They’ve got both games on

quiet first quarters, but it’s kicking off now!

Bah! And Grrrr.

I think that should be that now. But you never know!

I think I’d call it now……

Although…..Liverpool came back from 3 behind in a second leg; Spurs in a second half……can Brighton do it in 20 minutes?

No

Let’s not forget…

Man U 0 . Cardiff 2.

United board has a big dilemma now!

Well done Liverpool, nice try. Thank god you didn’t win. Now please destroy Spurs.

Let’s not forget…

Man U 0 . Cardiff 2.

Cardiff fans singing “You’re getting fired in the morning” 🙂

United board has a dilemma now

I’m presume you mean whether or not they should all **** off? I think I could give you an answer to that.

I knew this was going to happen today. It just perfectly capped off a bloody awful run of form caused by clueless owners who have given the players licence to decide whether or not they can actually be bothered to turn up

You can’t blame Ole. The whole ownership and management culture of the club is absolutely rotten to the core

They can sell every player (if anyone would have them) and replace the lot, but unless theirs some significant changes happen in the structure of the club, it’s just going to be more of the same

Hats off to City and Liverpool. They’ve played absolutely top notch football all season that has been amazing to watch

I can blame Ole

Though I was amused by the Wolves fans giving a rousing rendition of “**** all! You’ll never win **** all!”

I know it’s a double negative, but I think we got what they meant and it cheered up a truly terminally miserable last day for a United fan 😂

Another big cup game for Newport, off to Wemberley.

They can sell every player (if anyone would have them) and replace the lot, but unless theirs some significant changes happen in the structure of the club, it’s just going to be more of the same

That’s the dilemma. Do you replace the coach with someone else to try to polish the turds and get some of the ‘world class’ players to give a shit, or do you flush out the Augean stables that is the MU squad over the summer and start again?

It’s just bizarre that they had this fantastic run under Ole, playing attractive attacking football, but then flipped a switch and it was straight back to the bad old days (only worse).

Pogba has to go, doesn’t he?

Sacked in the morning sounds like a reasonable shout for Ole. A bad mistake has been made, and it ain’t about to fix itself over 3 months of no football. Clubs will usually act fast in this situation.

They had a great run under Ole yes, but it was hardly attractive attacking football. He seems keen to play on the break, sit deep and counter attack. Against the mid table and better sides you’ve got to be having more of a go to be honest. Isn’t that the United way as he kept harping on about during that run?

Got to question some of the decisions too – why give Martial such a good new contract if his attitude is poor? Why give Phil Jones a new deal? Make a statement and ship him out, he’s injured half the time and mince when he plays.

Would expect the fans would revolt if Ole gets sacked though. Give him next season at least.

Didn’t he have them on the worst losing run since Liverpool last won the league (so we’re going back a bit)? Utd fans are a sentimental bunch but I can’t see them taking to the warpath if he gets binned. There’s be some superficial grumbling, but they all know Ole’s out of his league so they’d just direct their ire at Woodward, whilst privately being happy to see the back of him.

Yeah – any revolt I’m sure would be directed to Ed Woodward and the board. Giving Ole the job and not waiting to the end of the season sums his decision making up! He just seems to get all the big ones wrong.

Ole was amazing at Cardiff, I can see why United signed him up!

In all honesty they should have waited until the end of the season before deciding, bet they are kicking themselves as they would have been in with a chance of Poch I recon.