The most coveted club trophy is up for grabs come this week. With games to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The English Premier League will be boasting in the Champions League due to providing a staggering five teams to the normal four teams required by England. This was due to Manchester United’s dominance in the Europa League the previous season and winning it. That trophy proved to be the most important trophy in United’s history in so many ways.
One of the reasons was, this was the missing piece in United’s trophy puzzle to make the team, one of the most successful in England to have lifted all trophies possible, from the Champions League to the World Club trophy.
Second reason was if United did not win that Europa League trophy last season they would not have qualified for the Champions League since they finished sixth in the League. Winning the Europa League which leads to teams being given an automatic qualification to the Champions League commenced about two seasons ago; so it’s most definitely a new rule enacted by UEFA.
Teams were already grouped about two weeks ago and boy will this Champions League group stage be mouthwatering! Chelsea are in the same group as Atletico Madrid and Roma, Neymar’s PSG are grouped with Lewandoski’s Bayern Munchen. Juventus and FC Barcelona are grouped together, in other words, revenge is on the table and it i’s best served cold. The group of death this time around has to be Real Madrid, Borrusia Dortmund, Tottenham Hotspur and APOEL. It wouldn’t be a walk in the park for the great Madrid and it will prove to be the ultimate test for shaky Tottenham.
The thing with the Champions League group stage games is that if you want to qualify past the round of sixteen round, always try and be number one in your group so that you meet a number two of another group, since number twos might not be as strong as the number ones of each group. But the groups this time around are strong and so number twos will still be as strong as number ones or even stronger than number ones, in some cases.
Let the football fans sit down with friends or partners, not forgetting cans of beer and let the games full of emotion and dazzle begin. To read more posts by Eddie, click HERE
