The mancityfans.net football forum

**Updated** (Thanks to Zurich)

Tomorrow draw starts 17:00 & there are changes....

The initial draw will no longer be balls in a bag, it'll be computer generated due to the complexity!!

We are in Pot 1 as are the murderers, also rans AKA Gooners pot 2 and the peaky blinder wannabes are in Pot 4!

Gone has the original format of us playing a team of each Pot (2,3,4) and play each home and away.

We will play 2 teams from each of the 4 pots, (inc the pot we are in) one home and one away from each group. The software stops teams playing rivals from their own country - and means each team can only play two clubs from any one country.

So it is one large league of 36 teams, who all play 4 home and 4 away a games against different opposition. No more home and away against the same teams.

At the end of this 8 games, the top 8 go through to the last 16, the bottom 8 are out and don't go into Europa..... teams 9 to 24 will then play in a knock out to fill the last 8 of the 16.

Not that it's going to help this randomness here are the teams in their pots....

Pot 1:

Real Madrid
Man City
Bayern Munich
Paris St-Germain
Liverpool
Inter Milan
Dortmund
Leipzig
Barcelona

Pot 2:

Bayer Leverkusen
Atletico Madrid
Atalanta
Juventus
Benfica ,
Arsenal
Club Brugge
Shakhtar Donetsk
AC Milan

Pot 3:

Feyenoord,
Sporting Lisbon,
PSV Eindhoven
Dinamo Zagreb
Salzburg
Lille
Red Star Belgrade
Young Boys
Celtic

Pot 4:

Slovan Bratislava ,
Monaco
Sparta Prague
Aston Villa
Bologna
Girona
Stuttgart
Sturm Graz
Brest

"The software stops teams playing rivals from their own country - and means each team can only play two clubs from any one country. " direct from the Beeb.

tough draw for the Rags though , Barnsley at home. Tricky that one.

zuricity wrote:tough draw for the Rags though , Barnsley at home. Tricky that one.

So pots 1 & 2 have 9 teams each, pot 3 has 6 and pot 4 has 8... how does that work?

zuricity wrote:"The software stops teams playing rivals from their own country - and means each team can only play two clubs from any one country. " direct from the Beeb.

Thanks Zuricity it's a tad confusing all round, I posted mainly from memory on the format.

I think it’s 9 teams in each pot. There’s one league and the important thing is to finish in the top 8 to qualify as a seed in the round of 16 draw where normal service is resumed. Those who finish between 9 and 24 have to play off for the remaining 8 places in the last 16. Those who finish below 24 are eliminated as are losers in the play off matches. Eliminated teams do not get to play in the Europa Cup this year. Two opponents from each pot one match home, one away so you don’t play two matches against any Club. I’m guessing 18 points will be enough for a top 8 finish. Crucial to win all four matches against pot 3 and 4 opponents.

Draw takes place at Monaco at 5 pm U.K. time. Remember a club is drawn at random. After that the computer picks the eight opponents and which match in each pot is home and which away.

Nice and simple. Just the way I like it.

Of course it's nothing to do with maximising revenue, not at all.

Bluemoon4610 wrote:So pots 1 & 2 have 9 teams each, pot 3 has 6 and pot 4 has 8... how does that work?

I assume the final 4 hadn't qualified when that list was written.

I'm actually looking forward to this new format.... it started to feel like we just played the same teams over and over - this should at least give us a bit more variety!

Bound to be loads of conspiracies with the computer generated draws when people perceive teams to have got the easier home draws etc.

zuricity wrote:"The software stops teams playing rivals from their own country - and means each team can only play two clubs from any one country. " direct from the Beeb.

In UEFA's own documents, I seem to remember that there is a chance that teams can play a maximum of one other club from their own country, but this is only in the event that 5 (or 6) clubs qualify from one country and they're all 'bunched' in 1 pot as a result of coefficients (as an example, there are 3 German teams in Pot 1, and 3 Italian teams in Pot 2, which really limits who can play who across them).

Like I said a few months ago, there are limited permutations of the draw. Once the first couple of teams have been drawn, the remainder essentially spells itself out.

Also, one peculiarity of European qualification this year. Although it only affects a couple of leagues, Serbia is one that's been affected by it:

In Serbia's case, the runner-up in the league wasn't guaranteed European football, while third-place was. The runner-up in the Serbian league (Partizan Belgrade) entered the CL 2nd QR, which they lost, then went to the Europa League 3rd QR, which they lost, to end up in the Conf. League Playoff, which they also lost. TSC (who finished 3rd) entered straight into the Europa League playoff round, and will at the very least end up in the Conference League group stage.

My guess is this is an oversight by UEFA in formulating the qualifying process, rather than something intentional. But if they make mistakes like this, it shows how much of a joke they are as an organization.

Bring in the Super League asap!

Not worth a separate thread but congratulations to Rico on his call up to the international squad. Walker not in the squad but he hasn’t played since the final. Grealish back though.

CTID Hants wrote:

zuricity wrote:"The software stops teams playing rivals from their own country - and means each team can only play two clubs from any one country. " direct from the Beeb.

Thanks Zuricity it's a tad confusing all round, I posted mainly from memory on the format.

Don't thank me ! It might be that we get Madrid away, Madrid away, bayern away and young boys

Wake me up at the 1/4 final stage

city72 wrote:Wake me up at the 1/4 final stage

I'm watching repeats of Frost. Far more interesting

We're out first!!

Manchester City play Inter Milan (home), PSG (away), Club Bruges (home), Juventus (away), Feyenoord (home), Sporting Lisbon (away), Sparta Prague (home), Slovan Bratislava (away).

We will play......

Inter H

Psg A

Brugge H

Juventus A

Feywnord H

Sporting Lisbon A

Sparta Praha H

Bratislava A