There is very little reward for finishing at the top end of the table
There is a conversation to be had about the new Champions League format, and pundit Jamie Carragher touched on it on Wednesday at the end of the league phase, even if he did eventually step back a bit.
This is referring of course to the next-to-worthless achievement of finishing at the upper end of the league table. Teams higher up the table are rewarded by being handed last-16 fixtures against sides coming through the playoffs, but the problem is that a lot of those sides are top teams who merely struggled for form and dropped out of the top eight, but would still be difficult competition in the knockout stages.’
Liverpool finished third in the table, and what is their “reward”?
“I’ve just seen who Liverpool’s potential opponents are, honest to God, this new format I’ve had enough of it,” Carragher said on CBS Sports.
“We finished top last year and got PSG, we finished third this year, listen to this, Atletico Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray or Juventus, and we finished third!”
Liverpool’s reward for finishing top of the table was a difficult tie against Paris Saint-Germain, which they lost, Luis Enrique’s team ultimately going all the way.
In the previous format facing such tough opponents in the first round of the knockout stages was less of an issue, because group winners were seeded and automatically drawn against runners-up from a different group, and those runners-up were less likely to be top-tier teams.
“If you finish third you can’t have them, you can’t have Atletico Madrid in there, Juventus,” protested Carragher.
Unfortunately you can. The new format only motivates teams to finish in the top eight, so they can avoid the burden of two extra games added to their calendar. Beyond that, finishing near the top end has very little value.
