Liverpool FC Forum

Just seen the draw, what a joke, Real Madrid again, both finalists from last year (PSG and Inter), Atletico Madrid who are another tough team....some other teams play 8 nobodies. How is this format fair i ask you?

It is a ridiculous and unfair format. At least we're not the only ones hard done by though. But the likes of Juventus and Spurs definitely got some pretty easy fixtures. Anyway, looking at how last season went, where you finish in the league phase doesn't even matter, we just need to qualify for the next stage. 

Some of the schedules for the main teams:
LIVERPOOL: Real Madrid (H), Inter Milan (A), Atletico Madrid (H), Eintracht Frankfurt (A), PSV (H), Marseille (A), Qarabag (H), Galatasaray (A)

ARSENAL: Bayern (H), Inter Milan (A), Atletico Madrid (H), Club Brugge (A), Olympiacos (H), Slavia Prague (A), Kairat (H), Athletic Club (A)

CHELSEA: Barcelona (H), Bayern (A), Benfica (H), Atalanta (A), Ajax (H), Napoli (A), Fafos (H), Qarabag (A)

JUVENTUS: Borussia Dortmund (H), Real Madrid (A), Benfica (H), Villarreal (A), Sporting CP (H), Bodø/Glimt (A), Pafos (H), Monaco (A)

TOTTENHAM: Borussia Dortmund (H), PSG (A), Villarreal (H), Eintracht Frankfurt (A), Slavia Prague (H), Bodø/Glimt (A), Copenhagen (H), Monaco (A)

REAL MADRID: Man City (H), Liverpool (A), Juventus (H), Benfica (A), Marseille (H), Olympiacos (A), Monaco (H), Kairat Almaty (A)

BARCELONA: PSG (H), Chelsea (A), Eintracht Frankfurt (H), Club Brugge (A), Olympiacos (H), Slavia Prague (A), Copenhagen (H), Newcastle (A)

BAYERN MUNICH: Chelsea (H), PSG (A), Club Brugge (H), Arsenal (A), Sporting CP (H), PSV (A), Union SG (H), Pafos (A)

MANCHESTER CITY: Borussia Dortmund (H), Real Madrid (A), Bayer Leverkusen (H), Villarreal (A), Napoli (H), Bodø/Glimt (A), Galatasaray (H), Monaco (A)

PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN: Bayern (H), Barcelona (A), Atalanta (H), Bayer Leverkusen (A), Tottenham (H), Sporting CP (A), Newcastle (H), Athletic Club (A)

Yup group phase really means fek all, you could finish as low as 24th, win a play off and you're back into the mold.

We saw what happened to us last season. Juggernauts in the league and then out done by PSG in first game of knockouts.
Only benefit is you play one less game if you finish 1-8.

24th side Club brugge got into knock outs play off with 3 wins 3 losses and 2 draws, same as sporting and City. All 3 had bettered Zabgreb on GD. If we don't finish 1-8 we'll easily get a play off spot.

redshade » Fri Aug 29, 2025 12:17 am wrote:Yup group phase really means fek all, you could finish as low as 24th, win a play off and you're back into the mold.

We saw what happened to us last season. Juggernauts in the league and then out done by PSG in first game of knockouts.
Only benefit is you play one less game if you finish 1-8.

24th side Club brugge got into knock outs play off with 3 wins 3 losses and 2 draws, same as sporting and City. All 3 had bettered Zabgreb on GD. If we don't finish 1-8 we'll easily get a play off spot.

Having to run your trots off against some of the best clubs on the continent through the week deffo impacts your league form though mate, it's very difficult to keep winning beating big name after big name after big name. Let's hope the fixture computer has done us a favour with some winnable domestic games around October/November time because if we've got games against the likes of City and Chelsea and away trips to the likes of Old Trafford and Goodison 2.0 mixed in with those CL games it's going to take a lot out of us.

Yup having looked at our fixtures Oct/Nov is going to be a tricky period, as you said if we've got the big ucl teams in between it gets trickier. Slot will just have to rotate a lot of guess, but it'll be interesting which competition he prioritises.

Liverpool’s squad for the league phase of this season’s Champions League has been confirmed.

The Reds kick off their latest tilt at the European Cup by hosting Atletico Madrid at Anfield on Wednesday September 17.

They will subsequently visit Galatasaray and Eintracht Frankfurt before meeting Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven in L4.

A December trip to Internazionale precedes their final two games of the phase in January: away at Marseille and home to Qarabag.

Liverpool’s submitted ‘List A’ squad for the competition is as follows: Alisson, Bradley, Ekitike, Endo, Frimpong, Gakpo, Gomez, Gravenberch, Isak, Jones, Kerkez, Konate, Leoni, Mac Allister, Mamardashvili, Ngumoha, Robertson, Salah, Szoboszlai, Van Dijk, Wirtz, Woodman.

Clubs can also name an unlimited number of players on their ‘List B’, which must be submitted by the eve of each fixture.

UEFA’s regulations say: “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 2004 and has, since his 15th birthday, been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.”

No Chiesa

Yeah no Chiesa. I'd say hes gutted to be left out. He works really hard for the team and even opted to miss the internationals so he could stay behind and train. Must feel like a right kick in the teeth to him.

Anyway couldn't be arsed really with this joke of a format. Absolutely pointless winning the half time league. Scrape through in 8th is as good as 1st!! So many dead rubber games in it as well.

I think since this format is so new we need to wait and see before making assumptions. The fact that PSG was in 18th place (or whatever) and played us (first) and went on to win it seems more a freak event than something that will happen every year. They were a great team that hadn’t gelled yet, they should have been 1st or 2nd after the initial stage and we shouldn’t have played them at that stage. This year, first probably will play a weak team that deserves to be 18th which seems more a normal situation than last year. I think it will take a few years to fully understand whether this is a good format and how best to exploit it.

I’ll add that we played PSG last year just as we hit a “blip” in our season and they barely got through even though they played better. We could well have won the CL last year.

Man, wouldn't Ngumoha be eligible to play even without being in the list since he's under 21? Feel gutted for Chiesa.

Yup gutted for Chiesa, would've been good also to utilise him against the lowerish sides.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... kwmjxwpkxo

No pressure lol

So we're getting either Galatasaray or Atletico Madrid in the next round. Kinda meh since we already played both in the league phase just a few months ago.

We beat Atletico but they've often been our bogey team so I'd rather we avoided them.

We lost against Galatasaray but they're only good in front of their fans on their home ground, and I'd like to get payback for losing to them.

I agree, I’d rather Galatasaray as I only think we lost to them because we were in a bad moment. I don’t like Atletico at all, a dark arts team, they could certainly park the bus and as we’ve seen, we don’t like that style. In any case, you have to beat all ahead of you to win the trophy.

Sorry for the negativity but we're not beating either. We're playing like *****, defensive crappy football. Both these teams will go at us and we'll crumble, home or away. Uncle festa will set us up to defend the nil nil and hope to nick it last minute. It'll backfire in this competition, we needed a last minute goal to beat a struggling Forest for fux sake. Unless he pulls his head from up his a$$ we're doomed.
Best option is for him to get the boot before this and hopefully the lads might start playing again.

Just my opinion, don't expect anyone to agree.