PSG big winners in new Champions League format

MUNICH: Paris St Germain (PSG) went from risking an early exit in this season’s Champions League to an emphatic final victory, with the French club proving the biggest beneficiaries of the competition’s new format.

Luis Enrique’s side thumped Inter Milan 5-0 on Saturday in Munich to win the tournament for the first time, but given their early form, they were lucky to even be involved in the knockout rounds.

The Champions League has long been a far cry from the old European Cup, where only the champions of each country took part in a knockout tournament, but perhaps this season governing body UEFA has found the best of the reinvented editions.

The group stage was replaced with a mammoth 36-team league phase where clubs play eight of the other sides once and the top eight qualify directly to the last 16, while the next best 16 go into a knockout playoff round to join them.

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SCEPTICISM

UEFA announced the changes in 2021 to much scepticism and criticism from players, managers and fans alike, with complaints over the confusing new format and yet more matches for players already unhappy with an overloaded football calendar.

While it did mean extra games for clubs, the claim that the changes would offer an even easier route for the major sides to reach the later rounds proved untrue, and the league phase offered excitement right up to the final matchday.

Luis Enrique brushed off any suggestion of altering his ways, despite the increase in games.

“It’s true, the schedule is a bit different but I don’t think it is going to change the way I work as a coach,” he said before the competition began.

“I have principles that I think are best for the team. It is always good to have around 20 players who think they can play, rather than 12 or 13.”

TEETHING PROBLEMS

PSG’s record over the opening six games would have made it very unlikely to see them make it out of the old group stage, having collected just seven points as the new format offered up more matches between the bigger clubs early on.

The French club had to face Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, losing to all three. PSG did win their opening match with Girona and later beat RB Salzburg but could only draw at home to PSV Eindhoven.

At that stage of the season, the coach faced criticism for his team selections and experimental formations, and Luis Enrique also laid down the law with his players, dropping Ousmane Dembele for the Arsenal game for disciplinary reasons.

There was method to what some saw as madness, and the coach has managed to turn his group of players into a proper team, with Dembele ending up player of the tournament, and PSG shifting gear at just the right time.

PSG were 2-0 down to Manchester City in their penultimate league phase game, with both sides in trouble as they found themselves way down the standings. PSG mounted a stunning comeback to win 4-2 and their Champions League campaign truly began.

Perhaps it is coincidental, but this season’s final was the first without a club from England, Spain or Germany since 2004, and gave us the first ever meeting of PSG and Inter, along with the French side finally reaching their holy grail.