The Champions League last-16 draw

One of the very few disadvantages of living in Mexico is that I am normally working during Champions League matches, and usually only watch the replays in the evening. But I certainly following a tournament that after its first rather dull format (I really wish they would return to the old format, but of course, it would be less matches and thus less money for the UEFA money-machine) we are now in the more exciting knock-out phase, and after some rather exciting play-off knock-out, have the draw for what will surely be a thoroughly exciting last-16:

• Paris St. Germain-Chelsea: The defending champions are facing the world champions in a repeat of the Club World Cup final, when Chelsea overran the Parisians. THIS is the match to watch
• Galatasaray-Liverpool: A match worth watching just because of the fans of both teams, some of the most passionate in the world (hopefully they will be nice...). Galatasaray eliminated Juventus over two extremely exciting matches.
• Real Madrid-Manchester City: Many people will perhaps say this is the match to watch, and surely two great teams, but real Madrid is always full of scandals, complaints and controversy that it is starting to overshadow its great history and the desire to watch them, while Manchester City to me is more and more becoming a soulless machine (that is not always working) that has lost its working class roots.
• Atalanta-Bayern Munich: Well, this will be exciting. Atalanta is known for its offensive style, and took out another German side, Borussia Dortmund, in style, winning 4-1 at home after losing 0-2 in Germany, and with fantastic goalkeeping. Bayern Munich is... well... just one of the best sides in the world...
• Newcastle-Barcelona: Everyone will be watching and betting on Barcelona, rightfully, against a Newcastle side that seems to be struggling in the PL and only made it here defeating the Azari surprise of Qarabag.
• Atletico Madrid-Tottenham: Don't watch this. Tottenham are as unwatchable as they are bad, and Atletico Madrid may be a strong side, but do not play to entertain, and can be rather destructive.
• Bodø/Glimt-Sporting Lisbon: The Norwegian side are the big surprise of the tournament and the darling of every neutral football fan, who will really want this small side from a small town hardly anyone has heard about, to upset the big sides. They surely have chances against a Portuguese side, who are generally known to underestimate the "smaller" sides, despite the fact that the Norwegians showed both style and discipline in defeating the top team in Italy, Inter Milan with 5-2 over two matches. Would it not be the best to see Bodø/Glimt in the quarterfinals?
• Bayer Leverkusen-Arsenal: Arsenal are favourites against a side that is only on 6th position in the Bundesliga, but at the same time the German's chance is that Arsenal are focusing on the race for the PL title. 

I hope I can take just a bit of time to watch... 

The Champions League 2024-25 draw

Usually I would post the groups after a CL draw, but with the format having been completely changed by UEFA, there is no point. That said, it is worth exploring the format a bit, and although I acknowledge that we football fans are generally conservative when it comes to the structure of tournament, I do find it a somewhat confusing structure.

I think simple is better, but perhaps the new structure may attract more interest? There will surely be more matches, more teams, and thus more money, surely what drives UEFA above any other consideration. But will there be better football? More drama? Better matches?

There are now 36 teams, and they will all have eight matches, four at home and four away, against randomly selected teams from four levels according to their rankings. Already sounds confusing, but the idea is that each team will face eight different sides, and then be ranked in a table that includes everyone (like a league table). The top eight teams will go directly into the last-16, while teams ranked 9 to 24 will play a knock-out phase to get the eight teams that will join the 1-8s in the last-16.

Teams ranked 25 to 32 will just go home.

The draw today was to see who each team would play for the first eight matches. The result is a huge table with the home and away opponents of each side, and there will surely be some interesting matches, such as Liverpool-Real Madrid, Manchester City-PSG and Barcelona-Bayern Munich, there are also matches that are bound not to attract much interest except for the involved teams, such as Brest-Sturm Graz, Girona-Bratislava or Young Boys-Crvena Zvedza.

The other part I have a hard time seeing is whether this will benefit the bigger or the smaller teams more. The smaller could have more chances by playing against other smaller sides, and then pulling surprises against the big teams, but at the same time the bigger teams could benefit from playing more matches against "smaller teams", getting their goals and points to progress in those matches. 

No matter what, it appears that even more than before, the most exciting part will be the knock-out stages, and the initial part appears mostly to draw out the smaller teams.

Hope it works and that we get a good CL season, and a great final in Munich next year.