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Liverpool 2 Lille 1 (Jan 21 2025)

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That was fairly low key but that’s fine, we got the result we needed and I don’t think we had to expend too much energy to get it. It was a dominant performance over a team that hadn’t lost since September, and I don’t think we really ever had to go higher than third gear.

 

Seven wins from seven, top spot in the group and guaranteed to finish no lower than second. I didn’t even realise what the benefit of that is until this morning. I knew it meant that in theory we get an inferior opponent in the knockouts, but I also knew that there’s the likelihood that we could get a tougher one as that’s far from being an exact science.

 

What I didn’t know was that finishing first or second means you avoid each other until the final, and you also get a guaranteed home second leg in every knockout round. That’s huge and absolutely makes it worth going balls out to secure a top two spot. And we’ve done it. We’d have locked up top spot if Benfica had a spine. Soft cunts blew a 4-1 lead and lost 5-4 at home to Barca, which means we now need a draw next week at PSV to be guaranteed top spot. We can’t finish worse than second though, and there’s basically no difference, so its all good.

 

I’d really love to win next week though even if it isn’t important. Keeping the 100% record is something to be proud of. It might not happen again. This is the first year in this new format but winning all eight games is something not many are going to be able to do, so it would be a cool thing to be able to get that done.

 

I think what has been most impressive about this is that it hasn’t looked difficult at all. We’ve played full throttle in a couple of games maybe, so Leverkusen and Madrid for example, and then a lot of it feels like we’ve cruised, like in this game. Maybe I’m overstating that and Slot might have a different view of it, but it just usually looks like we have another gear or two to go to if we need it.


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Still haven't a clue how this new format works other than we don't have a qualification game in the top 8 so thanks Dave for the info on top two. Is it an open draw once the 16 are decided?

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16 minutes ago, beejay said:

Still haven't a clue how this new format works other than we don't have a qualification game in the top 8 so thanks Dave for the info on top two. Is it an open draw once the 16 are decided?

I believe that once the last 16 are decided there will be one big draw which will set out the potential route to the final for all teams. No country or group protection. Next round we’ll play  someone who finish 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th.  

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Yeh, i think the teams that finish 16th and 17th play each other, and 15th and 18th play each other in play-offs.

 

Us and Barca will play one each of the 2 teams that go through.

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Good report Dave, I learnt a lot about the new format. Lille is a good team, they have done well so far beating the two Madrid’ s teams. It tells a lot we’re not that bad as well.

 

Haraldson is a good player.

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Are you sure that we are away in the first leg in the quarter-final and semi-final if we win the last 16 game? I have heard it but can't find confirmation of it anywhere. 

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38 minutes ago, Razoray said:

Are you sure that we are away in the first leg in the quarter-final and semi-final if we win the last 16 game? I have heard it but can't find confirmation of it anywhere. 


I heard it today too but just looked and can’t see anything 

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Seen lots of people saying it so I assumed it was true. 

 

Look at the teams we're likely to face in the next round and it makes a mockery of the whole "easier draw for finishing top" thing. You could finish 8th and end up with a much easier tie.

 

As things stand with one game left, we're playing one of Bayern, Madrid, Juve or Celtic.

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On 23/01/2025 at 12:21, dave u said:

Seen lots of people saying it so I assumed it was true. 

 

Look at the teams we're likely to face in the next round and it makes a mockery of the whole "easier draw for finishing top" thing. You could finish 8th and end up with a much easier tie.

 

As things stand with one game left, we're playing one of Bayern, Madrid, Juve or Celtic.


This is a bit like saying playing the mancs is a difficult game because of their history, even if they are shite.

 

By the way, people have absolutely no idea who we will be up against, there are no less than 17 teams with either 10, 11, 12 or 13 points in the table right now.

 

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On 23/01/2025 at 12:21, dave u said:

Seen lots of people saying it so I assumed it was true. 

 

Look at the teams we're likely to face in the next round and it makes a mockery of the whole "easier draw for finishing top" thing. You could finish 8th and end up with a much easier tie.

 

As things stand with one game left, we're playing one of Bayern, Madrid, Juve or Celtic.

 

According to Wiki, there is a draw to see who will play the second leg at home in QF and SF. The opponents will come from the bracket determined by leage stage standings.

 

So, iff we finish second, we could easily get City in the round of 16, based on where they finish and if they make it through the playoff round.

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2 hours ago, Code said:

This is a bit like saying playing the mancs is a difficult game because of their history, even if they are shite.

 

It's nothing like that at all.

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21 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

It's nothing like that at all.


Well it obviously is, people are judging possible opposition on their names instead of their actual performances. 
 

They are in the positions they are for a reason. 

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3 hours ago, SasaS said:

 

According to Wiki, there is a draw to see who will play the second leg at home in QF and SF. The opponents will come from the bracket determined by leage stage standings.

 

So, iff we finish second, we could easily get City in the round of 16, based on where they finish and if they make it through the playoff round.


Its pretty easy really.

 

We will finish either first or second, that means we will be up against one of the teams that finishes 18, 17, 16 or 15. 

 

The teams who finish 17 and 18 will play their play off games against 16 and 15; depending on a draw, the winners will play their teams who finish first or second depending on a draw. 
 

This secures the two teams who finish first and second an opponent no better than 15  from the league phase. 
 

In the quarter finals we will not be up against anyone finishing higher in the league phase than 8 or 7. 

We don't have a problem with another team from the city getting a home game the same day as us, so we should get a home game in the second leg every round as the seeded team. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Code said:


Well it obviously is, people are judging possible opposition on their names instead of their actual performances. 
 

They are in the positions they are for a reason. 

 

You of all people should know this is bollocks. Some teams in the middle will have had more difficult fixtures than those at the top, as we aren't all playing the same teams. But if you think Celtic would be a tougher game if they finished one place above Madrid, then there's not really much I can say as you're clearly nuts.

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1 hour ago, Code said:

so we should get a home game in the second leg every round as the seeded team. 

 

Is this defo the case as I've seen conflicting reports. Hope so, and if its not then it fucking should be.

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1 hour ago, dave u said:

 

Is this defo the case as I've seen conflicting reports. Hope so, and if its not then it fucking should be.

From what you can read in what I posted from UEFAs homepage that is the case.

 

How does the draw work?

Eight bowls are prepared for the draw, with the balls containing the names of the seeded and unseeded teams placed in pairs in the corresponding marked bowls according to the league phase rankings.
 

The draw starts with the unseeded teams, allocating each team from a pair of unseeded teams to one of the relevant pre-determined positions in the bracket, starting with the sides ranked 23/24 and finishing with those in 17/18.
 

One ball is taken from the bowl containing the two relevant ranked teams (i.e. the teams ranked 23 and 24) and is opened to display the team. The first team drawn from this bowl is placed in their reserved spot on the silver side of the bracket. The other unseeded team of the pairing is then drawn and displayed, and allocated in the corresponding reserved spot on the blue side of the bracket.
 

The same procedure is carried out with the remaining unseeded clubs.
 

Once all the pairings of unseeded teams have been drawn and assigned to an appropriate position on the bracket, the draw continues with the seeded sides, starting with the pairing ranked 15/16.

The process is the same as described above for the unseeded teams, with the first team drawn from the relevant bowl allocated to the reserved designated spot on the silver side of the bracket and the second team on the blue side.
 

The procedure is repeated for the remaining pairings, finishing with the teams ranked 9/10 to complete the pairings for the knockout round play-offs.
 

In principle, the seeded clubs play the return leg at home.

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But from the QF on, there is a possibility of two seeded clubs playing each other. Does it say anywhere that the highly seeded club plays the return leg at home? Because in the bracket lay out, this does not seem decided.

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18 hours ago, SasaS said:

But from the QF on, there is a possibility of two seeded clubs playing each other. Does it say anywhere that the highly seeded club plays the return leg at home? Because in the bracket lay out, this does not seem decided.

Not really, the teams that finish highest in the gruop phase will be the seeded team, at least thats how I read it. 

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That would certainly make sense since you want clubs be motivated to finish as high as possible in the leage.

 

On the other hand, the fact they will draw who gets to be the home team in the final, which seems irrelevant, leads me to believe they might  draw for GF and SF second leg too.

 

We'll see what thappens.

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