Second knockout round... they get a bye ?
Isn't first knockout round 9-24, so i presume 9-16 will get the same 2nd leg advantage.
There's no mention of that in the BBC explanation so I presume it would be a random draw. The eight seeded teams already have an advantage of skipping the qualifying round so I don't see why they need an additional advantage of playing the last leg away.
1-8 go straight through. 9-16 play 17-24 to join 1-8 in the next round; the seeding advantage for finishing 9-16 being to play 2nd leg at home. 25-32 are out.
I concluded the league phase will give the lower rated teams a better chance to qualify for play-off/knockout phases. They won't meet Real Madrid et al and the top seeds will knock each other into the play-offs or elimination.
Seems UEFA have produced more fixtures (kerching) and shifted the dead rubber fixtures into the play-off or knockout phase.
It's quite a weird structure to have a league of 32 but with seeded groups. But that's UEFA.
It could lead to a crazy last day of the league: Some of the current top 8 scared they'll drop out of that position, most of the middle 16 trying to either get top 8, or get 9th-16th to gain 2nd leg home advantage, or simply to not drop out altogether, and some of the bottom 8 trying to get up a few places to continue in the playoffs.
And some of these 'fear, hope and desperation' teams will doubtless be facing each other on the last day. It's possible that the 4th bottom team going into the last league day could win the Champions League!
Doing one of my final tests in practice mode before going live with my new OU automation, to £10 liabilities per market. Couldn't have gone any better today.
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He has indeed survived some incredible results and runs of form.
Certainly helps if you sacrifice a different player to the media every week instead of taking responsibility yourself. But also nicking a domestic cup or two in a one-off match too, even when you're miles off it in the league and are bottoming out in easy CL groups! Thought Bruno's first red was nonsensical the other day (like the Trossard one before that), but at least Bruno cares enough to put a shift in.
I'm not having a go either, I try to be constructive with any team and call things how I see them. And I see the same old goals issues, leaky defence, leaky roof etc. Varane has already retired from football since my last Utd post in August. ETH is deludedly trying to rebuild his old Ajax side by bringing all those players in, but he's apparently not allowed to shift all the deadwood, makes no sense. You are down bad if your main two game-chasing subs in CL are Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire.
In comparison, Real Madrid is run beautifully. They've kept the perennial Kroos and Modric and got rid of the expendable midfield workhorse in Casemiro. Replaced his workrate with fresh young legs. That's how you do it, not the other way around. Klopp ran his defensive midfielders into the ground, Fabinho fell off a cliff and the whole team suffered, so they all had to be shifted asap, all 8 midfielders.
David Fairclough or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer they are definitely not!!! Treading water. Will be interesting to see the direction Sir James and Sir David take the club.
United's ongoing problems shed light on why Fergie baled out and also how good the regime was before the Glazers got their greedy paws on it.
Brailsford is a serial winner but it's not looking great. His reputation is on the line for sure. ETH is just a puppet and appears to be failing. Villa will be a massive game. United are 3.3 v villa's 2.26. Can you you remember that scenario ever?
I'm torn cos I know Villans and MUFC fans. On merit, Villa deserve a win but United have so much latent quality you can't rule them out at all.
