- Jul 9, 2007
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Lets dig into the actual records of APOEL and Ludogorets in the CL shall weBetter football?
Better quality games?
I mean a lot of people complain about the group stages of the Champions League and how boring it is. How often do you even see Real Madrid be given a good game by Apoel Nicosia or Ludogorets?? It's almost always a rout!
Even our CL final run was a bit of a struggle. We hardly needed to be great to make the KO stages and scraped through. But more often than not you get 1 or 2 interesting groups and then the rest are relatively straightforward.
The EL is even worse!! Qualifying stages against teams you can beat in your sleep and then a group stage that is always a straightforward and boring task.
No-one ever comments on great games from the EL group stages, it doesn't even warm up until the quarter finals/semi finals
At least with a Super League, you will get more intense games and you may find a situation where you go to the last few games and everything is still all to play for?!
Either UEFA need to get around the table and reformat a competition that suits everyone (most) and maintains quality. They should focus on stealing the Super League's idea but keep the relegation/qualification basis.
APOEL have reached the group stages four times in recent years.
They have lost by more than 4 goals two time in the group stages, once against Barca once against real Madrid. In that time, they have finished 1st place in the CL group once, reaching the quarter-finals, before going out to Real Madrid in 2012. They are not just people who turn up to be beaten, but actually tend to be awkward opponents.
Ludogorets have reached the group stages twice, one time finishing 4th and one time 3rd, they have lost by 4 or more goals three times, against Real Madrid, Arsenal and Basel. They have also drawn against PSG and Liverpool, as well as drawing against Basel three times, they were also unlucky to be beaten by Arsenal 3-2. Not great but not an embarrassment.
These teams do okay, and sometimes, like Apoel in 2012, can go on an unexpected run. The perception is just so off compared to how these teams actually perform. The reality is, even if you go through the winner's section, qualifying for the CL is really hard. And teams like APOEL and Ludogorets, when they qualify are no worse than the likes of Celtic, which we tend to overrate because of the geographical proximity.