The final group stage matches of the Champions League take place this evening, before the reform of the competition which will see the disappearance of this format next year.
There are chapters which, when they end, give the feeling of closing a book. The group stage of the Champions Leaguewhich will disappear definitively next year and is having its last meetings this evening, was perhaps only an incipit for the European leaders, but represented a whole adventure novel for the little thumbs, the modest outsiders, the unpronounceable from the former USSR, the exotic islanders…
The group stage appeared in 1991, a year before the “European Champion Clubs’ Cup” became the Champions League. The current format, with 32 teams and the round of 16, dates from 2003. Twenty years later, it is a beautiful bow that these legendary groups will take, who will have offered some of their most beautiful emotions to all football fans French.
Olympique Lyonnais supporters cherish the memories of victories against Real Madrid in 2005 and 2006, and that of the 7-1 victory in Zagreb in 2011, when they had to win by four goals to qualify. Their Marseille counterparts will necessarily remember the zero points in 2013, but will prefer to remember the historic victory at Anfield in 2007, with a goal from Valbuena (0-1). Their Parisian rivals will always be able to remember the wonderful epic of 1994, where PSG only stopped in the semi-finals, marked by the 1-0 victory in the group stage on the pitch of Bayern Munich, thanks to an exploit by George Weah.
So many memories that will not fade, and which will, without a doubt, be joined by other beautiful moments in the new “league phase” of 36 teams which will replace the current group phase. No more group draws, no more double round-trip confrontations: each team will face eight others at random, half at home and the other half away. The 36 teams will be classified as in a championship at the end of these matches: the first eight will go directly to the round of 16, and the teams ranked 9th to 24th will compete in round-trip play-offs to join them.
This reform also marks the end of the possibility of being repaid in Europa League after this first phase, and the introduction of two places reserved for the nations with the best UEFA coefficients the previous season. A slow paradigm shift, a gradual shift towards ever greater protection of European leaders. This league will eliminate only 12 teams before the play-offs which are similar to the round of 16, and the favorites will have more matches to make up for it in the event of a bad result. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, they say, but not sure if you like the next one as much as the one that closes this week.