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It was billed as the first television event of its kind in football but that also meant it was the first television event in football where you required a manual.
The final night of the new Champions League group stage had a lot of goals, which was fun. It was also confusing, precisely because it had a lot of goals. Or, rather, a lot of goals where the significance wasn’t immediately obvious. The format almost worked against the showpiece in that sense.
That meant it didn’t quite work as a TV event in the way that was expected, either. Other than a game like Manchester City-Club Brugge, where the situation was binary and the stakes clear, it was almost information overload. Too many goals were going in, without it being instantly obvious what that meant for the table.
That sense of significance is after all what really elevates such events, and live sport in general. It’s not just the content but the consequence. There was more “jeopardy” to more games than in the old group stage, sure, but that doesn’t quite have the same impact if you have to consult a spreadsheet to see what a goal means.
The comparison for this has often been with the NFL “red zone” but that generally has eight games rather than 18. It’s a lot cleaner. Here, only 18 teams – the top half of the table – could actually fit on the screen.
Rather than a pay-off for the opening weeks of the group stage, it was arguably a culmination of everything that went before: a lot of football and some very enjoyable action but with it all being a bit vague over what the significance was. Again, content without major consequence.
You could say the same about the entire format. After 144 games, what has actually happened? All of the 16 wealthiest are through. The safety net of extending the play-offs to the top 24 allowed that. That, it should be stressed, is pretty much what the wealthiest clubs wanted when the idea for this came up amid leveraging over a Super League.
Even the biggest surprise of the campaign so far, Manchester City’s troubles, ended with the English champions fairly comfortable in the last 15 minutes. There was no great final tension.
So, the competition has been bloated to the biggest it has ever been to eliminate Dinamo Zagreb, VfB Stuttgart, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bologna, FK Crvena Zvezda, Sturm Graz, Sparta Prague, RB Leipzig, Girona, RB Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava and Young Boys.
Many might instantly point to the unexpected presence of two German clubs, a Spanish club and an Italian club there but compare that to last season’s group stage.
At the end of that, all of Manchester United, Newcastle United, Lens, Sevilla and Union Berlin were out – no safety net.
Not that the safety net doesn’t have a few holes. There is of course that play-off to come next, with City taking on one of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. That will serve as further justification for this change, and there are others.
It’s healthy that Aston Villa, Lille and Bayer Leverkusen finished ahead of much wealthier clubs to go straight into the last 16. The same can be said of Celtic, Brest, PSV Eindhoven, Brugge and Feyenoord in getting into the play-offs.
Again, an article like this isn’t to totally dismiss the system. It is to argue how football can and should be better. It is the slight frustration with how the night went, too. Despite fair criticisms of the format, the final night was something to look forward to. It could do with some tweaking.
It could certainly do with TNT Sports, in Britain, making their magnificent Goals Show more accessible. If it is understandable that British teams’ games can’t go on “digital only”, and live action takes priority – as is the official explanation – it should be easier to turn on what should be the flagship show for a night like this. Discovery have not exactly made the process smooth.
Luckily, you couldn’t say that about their presenting team. Ally McCoist in the studio was an excellent addition. The only issue was that the goals were almost going in too thick and fast for the team to say much.
The overload of action could actually have done with more clarifying information on screen, too. When a goal went in, for example, it would have been useful for Ryder Cup-style green/red arrows to flash up showing how the teams’ positions had changed on the live table.
There’s also an argument to offer a bit more focus on the games with the highest stakes.
Points like that are mere quibbles, though. And there are, to be fair, some major play-offs to come now. One of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or City – who represent three of the last four winners – will join that list of eliminated teams.
That will be held up as a great justification of the competition, and it is genuine consequence, but it will really be an exception. The wealthiest clubs have largely got what they wanted. That, it shouldn’t be forgotten, is the real significance of this.
