UEFA Champions League: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

The tournament has many stages: three knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round, then a group stage, then the the final knockout phase. Not all teams have to pass through all those phases, though; the top teams from the top leagues don't have to pass through the qualifying rounds. The group stage consists of eight groups of four teams (32 clubs in total), each team playing the others in home and away matches with the two top advancing to the knockout phase. Knockout is mostly two-legged matches as well, the exception being the final, which is held at a pre-determined location.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]] - The away goals rule sends one team out without losing in many matches. At its most [[Egregious]] in the 2003 semi-final when AC Milan defeated Inter on away goals. They share a stadium.

* [[Deus Exit Machina]] - What if the big teams of Europe all collectively failed in the same year? You might get a final between teams as small as Nottingham Forest and Malmö. 1978-79 actually saw this happen.

* [[Every Year They Fizzle Out]]: Chelsea.

** [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: They have been beaten in the later stages in some of the most bizarre and cruel ways. In 2005, they lost to Liverpool in the semi-finals by a single goal where the ball may have not crossed the line. In the 2008 final, they lost on penalties to Manchester United because their captain, John Terry, slipped when taking the decisive fifth penalty and missed - had he scored, Chelsea would have won. And in the 2009 semi-final, they went out on away goals to Barcelona; they were denied two arguable penalties by Norwegian referee Tom Henning Øvrebø, who also sent off FC Barcelona's left back Éric Abidal for no reason, and went out to a last-minute equaliser.

** Finally [[Averted Trope|Averted]] in 2012. A Chelsea team that fired their manager mid-season went on an amazing run all the way to the finals (steamrollering Napoli, Benfica and ''Barcelona'' in the process), where they beat Bayern Munich on penalties at their home stadium. They had finished 6th in the Premiership, and if they failed to win, they would not qualify for the Champions League the next year.

* [[Football Hooligans]]: A terribly tragic example in the 1985 final when Liverpool supporters were responsible for the deaths of 39 people, mostly Juventus fans, after an incident at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. It turned out English hooliganism was [[Not So Harmless]] and the English clubs were thrown out for 5 years, which would eventually lead to English Football's redemption when this and the tragedy at Hillsbrough forced several new regulations to be implemented. It's worked for the most part.

** A notable example was the Inter Milan team who won the UCL in 2010. They had 3 Brazilians, 4 Argentinians, a Romanian, a Dutchman, a Macedonian and a Cameroonian in their starting line-up. The only Italian that actually played that match, entered the pitch at minute 90+2.

*** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that case, as Inter Milan was founded explicitly to allow foreign players to play football in Milan. The other Milan based club, AC Milan, only accepted Italian born players in the early 1900s.

* [[Group Hug]]: Huddles before matches

* [[Homogenous Multinational Ad Campaign]]: The whole tournament is pretty much one of these - although alcohol advertising laws in various countries have necessitated [[Logo Joke|variations on Heineken's logo]].

[[Category:The Beautiful Game]]

[[Category:UEFA Champions League]]