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| AFP Yonhap News |
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| EPAYonhap News |
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The last person who laughed was Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Starting this season, UEFA introduced a league phase format that expanded the existing group stage-tournament format by expanding the number of teams participating in the Champions League, the Europa League, and the Europa Conference League. All 36 teams will be included in the same league and play eight games with eight teams, and the teams that participate in the knockout tournament and the playoffs will be determined based on the rankings determined by their performance. The teams ranking first to eighth will go straight to the round of 16 tournaments, and the teams ranking ninth to 24th will decide whether they will advance to the round of 16 through the playoffs. The lower teams in the existing group stage of the Champions League moved to the Europa League tournament, but in the league phase, teams ranked 25th or lower are automatically eliminated without movement.
PSG finished 15th in the Champions League phase with 13 points (goal difference +5). He was sluggish with one win, one draw and three losses until Match Day 5, but later won three consecutive games to accumulate points. PSG, which scored a total of 10 goals in two matches to Brestu, who met in the playoffs, won Liverpool after a penalty shootout, and tied Aston Villa with 1 win and 1 loss in the quarterfinals, but advanced to the semifinals with a 5-4 total score. PSG, which won two consecutive games against Arsenal in the semifinals, defeated Inter Milan 5-0 in the final, lifting the title of `Big Year (a nickname for the European Champions League trophy)."
Due to this process, some pointed out whether PSG, which had been sluggish in the league phase, deserved the championship team. However, in the round of 16, they beat Liverpool, the No. 1 league phase and the winner of the English Premier League, and Aston Villa (8th), Arsenal (3rd), and Inter Milan (4th) all had better league phase performance than PSG. Given that PSG is the strongest team in France that has swept its own trophies, including League 1, the Coupe de France (FA Cup), and the League Cup, it is evaluated that PSG is also qualified to win the Champions League.
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| EPAYonhap News |
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Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha told the BBC: "The league phase was fun. It wasn't a stage where the strong teams played each other, but there were quite a few good games", he commented. He said "The biggest change is that each team only met once. The results didn't dictate everything. Therefore, the energy of the weak teams was definitely different. Aston Villa's win over Bayern Munich is a good example." Regarding PSG, which overcame its slump in the early stages of the league phase to win the championship, he said, `It shows that it is important to find form at the right time (in the league phase system)," adding `PSG's victory showed that it doesn't matter if it doesn't go straight to the round of 16 (because it can go to the round of 16 through the playoffs.' Reporter Nikki Bandini also commented "Without this format (league phase), we would not have seen PSG develop during the season."
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| AFP Yonhap News |
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It is evaluated that the overall system was enough to arouse interest. The BBC reported that 13 teams had confirmed their advance to the round of 16 ahead of the final Champions League group stage match last season. However, before the final match day of this season, only Liverpool and FC Barcelona confirmed their direct advance to the round of 16 and pointed out that the teams that have faced each other in the past five Champions League finals have met four times in the league phase.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
