The introduction of a new Champions league format was met with plenty of backlash and it certainly hasn’t gone away after this week’s opening round of matches.
Both Manchester City and Arsenal played out relatively uneventful 0-0 draws with Inter Milan and Atalanta respectively.
Matches across Europe were criticised for lacking jeopardy with teams knowing they still have another seven games to play, with only 12 of the 36 participating clubs being eliminated at the league phase.
Fans have taken to social media to criticise the impact the changes have had on the Champions League.
One posted on X: ‘This new format of Champions League actually spoil the fun in it. All the teams are relaxed knowing they have a lot of games to play’.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal drew 0-0 with Atalanta in a rather underwhelming affair on Thursday
Manchester City were also held to a goalless draw on Wednesday by Inter Milan at the Etihad
Another wrote: ‘Watched the two best teams in England in the last two days and both have bored me to death. this is a sign of the new Champions League.’
There were plenty of posts on X which echoed their sentiments with one fan writing: ‘Nice to see this new Champions League format is just as garbage as we all expected it to be. Absolutely s****.’
Another posted: ‘The new format will make the Champions League more exciting they said. Ha!’
This year’s group stage competition consists of a single league table instead of the familiar eight groups of four teams each.
Although the new format has been developed into a league style table, each team will only play eight games, coming up against a new side each time.
The sides will play an equal amount of games at home and away, meaning they will play four home and four away.
Once all the games have concluded, the eight teams at the top of the table will qualify automatically to the last-16 of the competition.
The sides that finish from 9th to 24th will be drawn against one another in a knockout play-off round for the right to join the other eight teams in the last-16.
The bottom twelve teams will be eliminated from the competition and Europe all together as they will not be demoted to the Europa League which was the case the past few years.
From there the competition will follow the same style as previous years, with all knockout games being contested both home and away.
