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Post by Moore on Aug 31, 2022 15:01:33 GMT 1
  2004-05 onwardsThe context
After four decades, the paradigm of the competition qualification shifted, and so did its format. Almost 50 years later, 32 teams qualify for the main stages of the tournament and are drawn into eight groups of four teams each. Those four teams play each other twice (home and away) and two of them qualify for the elimination phases. The third placed team is relegated to the last 32 phase of the UEFA Cup, and the fourth placed team is out of the European competitions for the remaining of the season. In the final stages, qualifying teams battle home and away to avoid elimination and qualify for the grand Final that closes the season for most of European football.
With the current 2004-05 format, some countries are more represented than others in the UEFA Champions League (as in the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Intertoto Cup), due to their success in the late history of the competitions. But how is that success measured?
That success is measured by a formula – the UEFA Coefficient – that ranks clubs and nations attributing them points per main stage qualification, final stage qualifications, wins and draws in the main two European competitions. Rewarding success, the better represented nations (Spain, England and Italy) get up to two direct spots in the Champions League Group Stage, and two more can be achieved via qualification rounds, in the beginning of the season. At the Group Stage, the 32 clubs are also seeded by coefficient and divided into four pots. One team from each pot gets drawn into each group.
The aforementioned coefficient system is due to change, due to the changes made to the UEFA Cup format (now also to feature a Group Stage), meaning that 2004-05 will be the last season the 5-season coefficient will be taken into account. In 2005-06, only the two previous seasons will count towards the ranking, as in 2006-07. In 2007-08, the coefficient of the latest three seasons will be taken into account, and the system will carry on to further seasons.
The objective The main objective adjacent to this diary/dynasty is to simulate the last 15+ seasons of Europe’s most prestigious club competition, while still allowing its key players to take part of it. Will Zlatan Ibrahimovic be able to win a Champions League? Will Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo win their first trophies in 2006 and 2008, as in real life? Who knows?
Furthermore, I plan on telling stories instead of just presenting the results with the details provided by the simulation. The goal scorers will stay intact, reflecting the ones given by the simulation. Dramatic last-minute eliminations, improbable hero and underdog stories will be emphasized, and so will the traditional rivalries, be it domestic ones, such as Barcelona vs. Real Madrid or historical European ones, such as Bayern Munich vs. Manchester United.
Regarding the simulation To simulate the UEFA Champions League, I’ll be using the League Simulator website. However, there is no way to officially simulate the competition by using the preset league/tournament formats. So, I’ll be running leagues of four teams, based on the draws (which will be conducted using Random.org) to recreate the Group Stages.
The following rounds will also be ran by creating leagues of four with two brackets. The matches between teams drawn against each other will count, the others won’t. Per example: it’s the Round of 16, Benfica has been paired with Barcelona in the A bracket, Liverpool has been paired with Internazionale in the E bracket. I’ll create a league of four with these teams and ignore the matches between the teams of the A and E brackets.)
League Simulator has a system that allows players to be edited. So, using a basic conversion method, the overalls of FIFA (05, for the first season simulated) will be converted into the 1-9 ratings of League Simulator. I’ll explain the conversion method when introducing the 2004-05 season.
Due to that conversion method, some teams in the simulation won’t reflect some of the teams in real life, as some leagues are not present in the FIFA games. Per example, due to that there will be no Russian, Turkish or Ukranian teams in the 2004-05 simulation. To substitute them, the eliminated teams in the real-life Third Qualification Round with the best goal difference are selected.
To simulate the coefficient of the teams competing in the UEFA Cup, the real-life results will be counted. The exceptions are, of course, the substituting teams (a), and the 3rd placed teams in the UEFA Champions League, which more often than not won’t reflect the real-life ones. (b) So, here’s what will happen in each case:
a) the substituted teams that can’t be in the UEFA Champions League will get the real-life UEFA Cup coefficient points of the teams that subbed them.
b) the teams eliminated from the UEFA Champions League in the Group Stage (3rd place) will continue to earn the coefficient points earned in real-life in the UEFA Cup by the teams of the same fate.
In both cases, the conversion will be based off the UEFA Club Ranking at the beginning of the season. Example: Dynamo Kiev (the best-ranked team to be subbed will earn the UEFA Cup points of the best-ranked team that didn’t enter UEFA Champions League in real-life, but entered in the simulation). Example #2: Werder Bremen (the best-ranked team to place 3rd in the UEFA Champions League and drop to the UEFA Cup will earn the UEFA Cup Final Stage points of the best-ranked team in the same situation in real-life.)
Confused? Possibly. But trust me. I’m NOT cheating the system.
Former Champions & Finals • 1955-56: Real Madrid [ESP] (4x3 vs. Stade de Reims [FRA] – Paris, FRA)
• 1956-57: Real Madrid [ESP] {x2} (2x0 vs. Fiorentina [ITA] – Madrid, ESP)
• 1957-58: Real Madrid [ESP] {x3} (3x2 a.e.t. vs. AC Milan [ITA] – Brussels, BEL)
• 1958-59: Real Madrid [ESP] {x4} (2x0 vs. Stade de Reims [FRA] – Stuttgart, GER)
• 1959-60: Real Madrid [ESP] {x5} (7x3 vs. Eintracht Frankfurt [GER] – Glasgow, SCO)
• 1960-61: Benfica [POR] (3x2 vs. Barcelona [ESP] – Bern, SWI)
• 1961-62: Benfica [POR] {x2} (5x3 vs. Real Madrid [ESP] – Amsterdam, NED)
• 1962-63: AC Milan [ITA] (2x1 vs. Benfica [POR] – London, ENG)
• 1963-64: Internazionale [ITA] (3x1 vs. Real Madrid [ESP] – Vienna, AUT)
• 1964-65: Internazionale [ITA] {x2} (1x0 vs. Benfica [POR] – Milan, ITA)
• 1965-66: Real Madrid [ESP] {x6} (2x1 vs. Partizan [YUG] – Brussels, BEL)
• 1966-67: Celtic [SCO] (2x1 vs. Internazionale [ITA] – Lisbon, POR)
• 1967-68: Manchester United [ENG] (4x1 a.e.t vs. Benfica [POR] – London, ENG)
• 1968-69: AC Milan [ITA] {x2} (4x1 vs. Celtic [SCO] – Madrid, ESP)
• 1969-70: Feyenoord [NED] (2x1 a.e.t vs. Celtic [SCO] – Milan, ITA)
• 1970-71: Ajax [NED] (2x0 vs. Panathinaikos [GRE] – London, ENG)
• 1971-72: Ajax [NED] {x2} (2x0 vs. Internazionale [ITA] – Rotterdam, NED)
• 1972-73: Ajax [NED] {x3} (1x0 vs. Juventus [ITA] – Belgrad, YUG)
• 1973-74: Bayern Munich [GER] (1x1 + 4x0 vs. Atletico de Madrid [ESP] – Brussels, BEL)
• 1974-75: Bayern Munich [GER] {x2} (2x0 vs. Leeds United [ENG] – Paris, FRA)
• 1975-76: Bayern Munich [GER] {x3} (1x0 vs. Saint-Étienne [FRA] – Glasgow, SCO)
• 1976-77: Liverpool [ENG] (3x1 vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach [GER] – Rome, ITA)
• 1977-78: Liverpool [ENG] {x2} (1x0 vs. Club Brugge [BEL] – London, ENG)
• 1978-79: Nottingham Forest [ENG] (1x0 vs. Malmö [SWE] – Munich, GER)
• 1979-80: Nottingham Forest [ENG] {x2} (1x0 vs. Hamburger SV [GER] – Madrid, ESP)
• 1980-81: Liverpool [ENG] {x3} (1x0 vs. Real Madrid [ESP] – Paris, FRA)
• 1981-82: Aston Villa [ENG] (1x0 vs. Bayern Munich [GER] – Rotterdam, NED)
• 1982-83: Hamburger SV [GER] (1x0 vs. Juventus [ITA] – Athens, GRE)
• 1983-84: Liverpool [ENG] {x4} (1x1 [4x2 pen.] vs. AS Roma [ITA] – Rome, ITA)
• 1984-85: Juventus [ITA] (1x0 vs. Liverpool [ENG] – Brussels, BEL)
• 1985-86: Steaua Bucuresti [ROM] (0x0 [2x0 pen.] vs. Barcelona [ESP] – Sevilla, ESP)
• 1986-87: FC Porto [POR] (2x1 vs. Bayern Munich [GER] – Vienna, AUT)
• 1987-88: PSV Eindhoven [NED] (0x0 [6x5 pen.] vs. Benfica [POR] – Stuttgart, GER)
• 1988-89: AC Milan [ITA] {x3} (4x0 vs. Steaua Bucuresti [ROM] – Barcelona, ESP)
• 1989-90: AC Milan [ITA] {x4} (1x0 vs. Benfica [POR] – Vienna, AUT)
• 1990-91: Red Star Belgrad [YUG] (0x0 [5x3 pen.] vs. Marseille [FRA] – Bari, ITA)
• 1991-92: Barcelona [ESP] (1x0 a.e.t vs. Sampdoria [ITA] – London, ENG)
• 1992-93: Marseille [FRA] (1x0 vs. AC Milan [ITA] – Munich, GER)
• 1993-94: AC Milan [ITA] {x5} (4x0 vs. Barcelona [ESP] – Athens, GRE)
• 1994-95: Ajax [NED] {x4} (1x0 vs. AC Milan [ITA] – Vienna, AUT)
• 1995-96: Juventus [ITA] {x2} (1x1 [4x2 pen.] vs. Ajax [NED] – Rome, ITA)
• 1996-97: Borussia Dortmund [GER] (3x1 vs. Juventus [ITA] – Munich, GER)
• 1997-98: Real Madrid [ESP] {x7} (1x0 vs. Juventus [ITA] – Amsterdam, NED)
• 1998-99: Manchester United [ENG] {x2} (2x1 vs. Bayern Munich [GER] – Barcelona, ESP)
• 1999-00: Real Madrid [ESP] {x8} (3x0 vs. Valencia [ESP] – Paris, FRA)
• 2000-01: Bayern Munich [GER] {x4} (1x1 [5x4 pen.] vs. Valencia [ESP] – Rome, ITA)
• 2001-02: Real Madrid [ESP] {x9} (2x1 vs. Bayer Leverkusen [GER] – Glasgow, SCO)
• 2002-03: AC Milan [ITA] {x6} (0x0 [3x2 pen.] vs. Juventus [ITA] – Manchester, ENG)
• 2003-04: FC Porto [POR] {x2} (3x0 vs. AS Monaco [FRA] – Gelsenkirchen, GER)
Next post: The Top 15 stories of the UEFA Champions League until 2004
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Post by Moore on Sept 7, 2022 14:11:09 GMT 1
 15 (stories) from the 49 (seasons)
Nine trophies lifted (various seasons)
Real Madrid is synonymous with the UEFA Champions League and the former UEFA European Champions Cup. From 1955-56 to 1959-60, the Spanish team lifted the five trophies in dispute – the first five, nonetheless – while carried by a generational dream team, starred by Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás and Francisco Gento.
The club would win it again in 1965-66, but then, a 30+ year drought followed. During that period, Real would only even reach the final once. But in recent years, ‘Los Blancos’ look strong(er than ever?), having won three Champions League trophies in five seasons, from 1998 to 2002. With a team composed of Zinedine Zidane, Luís Figo, Ronaldo, Raúl Gonzalez, among others, it’s hard not to consider them heavy favorites for the upcoming seasons.
Béla Guttmann’s curse is very much alive (various seasons)
Who was Béla Guttmann? He was the Hungarian coach in charge of Benfica from 1959 and until 1962, after being picked up from arch-rivals FC Porto. In two European Champions Cup seasons with the Portuguese ‘Reds’, Gutmtmann… won the trophy twice, putting an end to Real Madrid’s dominance.
After that, he left Benfica in disagreement with the board and “cursed” the team, by publicly saying Benfica would never ever win an International cup without him. After the statement, Benfica lost no less than five (!) European Champions Cup finals – the club with the most lost finals, joint with Juventus –, the last in 1990, and one UEFA Cup in 1983. After a struggling late 90s period, Benfica is nowhere near contention.
The underdogs of the 80s (various seasons)
Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Hamburger SV, Steaua Bucuresti, FC Porto and PSV Eindhoven. All these six teams were European champions for the first time in the 1980s, and they were not close to ever do it prior to that.
Sure, the latter three won it in a time where English teams were banned (more on that later), but that shouldn’t count as a discredit. In general, the rise of the underdogs was propelled by a lack of national dominance: Spain, Italy and England didn’t have a super-dominating force at the time, and Bayern Munich was unable to transfer their national success to the continental stage.
11 meters from glory (various seasons)
Since 1970-71, the UEFA competitions feature penalty shoot-outs to determine the winners of drawn rounds and finals after extra time provides no winner. And since then, seven Champions League finals have been decided that way.
The first two crowned heroic goalkeepers: Bruce Grobbelaar’s wobbly legs gave Liverpool the trophy against AS Roma in 1984 and Helmuth Duckadam saved all four of Barcelona’s penalties in 1986 to give Steaua Bucuresti the ultimate underdog win. Since then, five more teams fell victim to the terrible fate of losing via penalty shoot-out: Benfica (1988), Marseille (1991), Ajax (1996), Valencia (2001) and Juventus (2003).
The end of the Latin dominance (1966-67)
Only three countries and four teams could claim to have won an European Champions Cup until 1967, as one Spanish team, one Portuguese team and two Italian teams had conquered the competition, leaving Great Britain, the home of football, merely watching it.
It all changed in 1967, but it wasn’t the English superpower Manchester United to win it. It was, against most odds, Celtic FC, from Scotland. The ‘Bhoys’ golden generation prevented Internazionale’s third trophy win in Lisbon and from then on became known as ‘The Lisbon Lions’, a nickname taken from Sporting CP, the third most successful Portuguese club, that don green and white horizontal stripes, as Celtic also do.
“Total (European Cup) Football” (1969-70 to 1972-73)
It was common for some countries to dominate European football for the first two decades of the competition, and the Netherlands did it too. Feyenoord and Ajax won the ‘big silver vase’, starting the 70s with a bang.
Feyenoord, the underdog of the rivalry, managed to stick it to Ajax by doing it first. But, well, Ajax did a “three-peat” right after that. It all happened in a period where the Dutch played the finest football in the world, nicknamed ‘Total Football’, a philosophy in which all 11 players defended applying constant pressing and all the 10 field players were able to attack. Johan Cruyff, Ajax’s star, was actually the World’s best player at the time.
First three for Germany, first three for Bayern (1973-74 to 1975-76)
Very few teams have won the competition three times in a row, and Bayern Munich was one of them. Nearly 20 years after its creation, the UEFA European Champions Cup was won by a German side in a period where West Germany was also dominating national team football.
A ridiculously good team, backboned by Sepp Maier (goalkeeper), Georg Schwarzenbeck (centre-back), Franz Beckenbauer (sweeper) and Gerd Müller (striker) in all three occasions served as the main pillar of the country’s 1974 FIFA World Cup winning roster.
The first ultimate underdogs (1978-79 and 1979-80)
“Which team has more European Championships than National ones?” The answer is Nottingham Forest. More surprising than that is the fact that their story happened in a time when only champions qualified for the European competitions. Forest actually qualified for the 1979-80 European Cup season by winning it in 1978-78.
The team, coached by the iconic Brian Clough, was headlined by some of the best British players of the time, representing the biggest investment in the history of football until then. However, it doesn’t make it one bit less impressive. They won two trophies in just three appearances.
Tragedy calls for measures (1984-85)
The darkest moment in the history of the UEFA club competitions came in the form of the 1984-85 final, more remembered for what happened prior to the game. Juventus beat Liverpool, but 39 people died before the match started.
The victims were crushed against a concrete wall by other innocent fans when Liverpool ‘hooligans’ charged at them. The wall eventually collapsed, but the damage was done. As a result, the English clubs were banned from European competitions for five years (Liverpool for six) and several adjustments regarding fan security had to be made in the United Kingdom.
May all the victims rest in peace.
The peak of 90s football (1993-94)
Paolo Maldini, Marcel Desailly, Zvonimir Boban, Dejan Savicevic, Pep Guardiola, Ronald Koeman, Hristo Stoichkov and Romário were all on the field for the 1993-94 Champions League final – the second under said name.
Fabio Capello’s AC Milan and Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona were arguably the two biggest clubs at the time, so the occasion was perfect to decide which side was indeed the best. The question was answered without a doubt at the end of the 90th minute, as the Italian side thrashed the Catalans 4-0. 10 years later, Savicevic’s lob to make it 3-0 is still considered one of the greatest goals to be scored in a final.
New golden generation stuns Milan (1994-95)
AC Milan and Ajax met three times in the 1994-95 season. Having been drawn in the same group, the pair of teams met again in the final. The Dutch side had won both games in the Group Stage, but most people still saw Milan as the favorite to win the competition.
They didn’t. A young generation of national talent (Edwin van der Sar, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids…), along with Nigerian wonders George Finidi and Nwankwo Kanu, and the greatest Finnish player of all time, Jari Litmanen, was enough to beat Milan at the end. The winning goal was scored by Patrick Kluivert, who remains the youngest goalscorer ever in a final (18 years, 327 days).
It’s not over until the whistle is blown (1998-99)
In the Group Stage, Danish team Brondby stole Bayern Munich three points – their only three – with an impressive comeback completed in the 90th minute with Allan Ravn scoring one of the best goals ever. Flash forward to the semi-finals: Manchester United made a comeback to reach the final, eliminating Juventus.
It all came full circle at Camp Nou’s Final. Bayern was leading 0-1 since the 6th minute. In the 91st: corner for the ‘Red Devils’ from the left and the ball pinballed in the area before Teddy Sheringham scored! Incredible scenes as the game was then 1-1. Two minutes later: corner from the same side, Sheringham with the header and Ole Solskjaer puts it in the net! 2-1 was the final score, with two goals from the two sub-ins… at stoppage time. Unbelievable. Until then, the biggest comeback in Champions League history.
Same-country rivals meet in the final (1999-00 & 2002-03)
As the presence of two teams of the same country in the competition was limited to champion and title holder for most of its history, it took until the new millennium for a final between said teams to happen.
Real Madrid and Valencia, from Spain, were the first two. Valencia were at their peak, and Real were the biggest winners. ‘Los Blancos’ won it for the 8th time, and Valencia would reach and lose another final the year after that. In 2002-03 it was AC Milan and Juventus, from Italy, to reach the Final – one of the most boring finals of all time, due to the extremely cautious tactics of both teams. Milan won in the penalty shoot-out.
‘Galácticos’ and ‘Red Devils’ headline an instant classic (2002-03)
In the first leg of the Champions League Quarter-Finals of 2002-03, Real Madrid’s ‘Galácticos’ seemed on their way to make it to, possibly, their 10th trophy win, as they beat Man. United 3-1 at home.
In Old Trafford, however, the home team put on a fight. Ruud van Nistelrooij, David Beckham and company held Real onto the ropes. But Ronaldo was too much to handle, as he scored an hat-trick in one of the most respect-inducing stadiums of the world. 4-3 for Manchester United was the final result. The game, full of action and one of the best in the history of the sport, wasn’t enough to propel United to the next stage.
The underdogs take over again (2003-04)
In September 2003, few would believe anyone saying that AS Monaco, Deportivo La Coruña and FC Porto would make it to the Champions League Semi-Finals. Despite having great side, there would surely be 5 or 6 more fitting contenders, right? Wrong.
Real Madrid fell against Monaco, Man. United were eliminated by Porto and Deportivo managed to slay the two 2003 finalists: Juventus and Milan – the latter in probably the most impressive eliminatory in the history: Milan won 4-1 at home before losing 4-0 away. In the semi-finals, Monaco and Porto reached the final, where the Portuguese side beat the French team 3-0.
2004 has been an odd year, overall, as relatively unknown Colombian Once Caldas conquered the Copa Libertadores (South America’s equivalent to the Champions League) and… Greece (!!!) managed to conquer Europe in the National level.
Next post: UEFA Champions League 2004-05 Group Stage: the teams, the squads, the draw. |
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Post by Moore on Sept 8, 2022 0:24:33 GMT 1
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Post by Moore on Sept 8, 2022 17:43:43 GMT 1
 2004-05: Group Stage drawGroup A   
FC Porto’s group schedules two meetings between them and last season’s Quarter-Final rivals Olympique Lyonnais. Both are very leveled teams and are expected to advance. Ajax, far from their glory days, will probably be in dispute for the 3rd place (and UEFA Cup spot) with Glasgow Rangers.
One of the two “groups of death”. Manchester United and Juventus are the two favorite teams to advance, maybe with United having a slight edge. But AS Monaco, as last season’s finalists will have something to say, and their luck was certainly unfortunate. One must also pay close attention to Club Brugge, as they have potential to shake things up.
Two of the biggest winners in Champions League history were drawn together: Real Madrid and Liverpool. But if Real is, maybe, the top favorite to win the competition, Liverpool is not one of the first teams to come to mind. Werder Bremen, the German champions, and PSG are tough competition, and can have a say in the battle for qualification.
The lesser group of this Champions League season in the fans’ eyes. Deportivo La Coruña the most recent power of Spanish football is probably going to top the group. Panathinaikos, Sparta Prague and Rosenborg will battle for the 2nd spot and, in fairness, guarantee a place in the Second Round for a smaller nation.
Anderlecht was unlucky to have been drawn alongside Arsenal and Internazionale. The English champions come from their best domestic season ever, and the team from Milan will try to beat them for the top spot. Djurgardens come as the ultimate underdog, probably of all the competition.
13 trophies were won by the four teams of Group G, that is the other “group of death”. AC Milan and Bayern Munich are the top dogs, and there’s no doubt about it. But PSV and Benfica, both in close levels, will probably also guarantee a tough battle and, maybe, steal some points from the favorites. Can they get back to their glory days, though?
Trickier than it seems: at first sight Valencia and Chelsea might seem like the only two contenders to qualify from Group H, and they are undoubtedly the biggest. But Celtic, having been the UEFA Cup finalist in 2003, have something to say. Olympiacos, featuring some important players, may also have a say.
Next post: Group Stage Round 1. |
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