THE new Champions League format could throw up some enthralling ties if a supercomputer’s predictions are anything to go by.
All 36 teams face off at the same time on Wednesday night in the final matches of the league phase.
Teams will be fighting for the lives with everything up for grabs as those who secure a top eight spot will book an automatic spot in the last 16, the teams placed ninth to 24th head into a play-off round and those from 24th to 36th head straight out of the tournament.
Thanks to the boffins at Bettingexpert.com and their supercomputer BETSiE, we now know what the most likely outcome is of the league phase.
Their supercomputer has simulated the final round of games 100,000 times, taking into account all the necessary data to make the best predictions it can.
And according to their simulations, Manchester City are set to MISS OUT on qualifying for the next round!
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The four-in-a-row Premier League champions need to beat Club Brugge and hope other results go their way to finish in the top 24, but the supercomputer thinks that is pretty unlikely to happen.
City are predicted to narrowly miss out, finishing in 25th place.
Liverpool are predicted to finish top of the table, while Arsenal should advance in third spot and Aston Villa have been tipped to sneak into the automatic last 16 places by finishing in eighth place.
With the way that the new Champions League format works, the predicted table means we can look at who would face who in the qualification round and ultimately the last 16.
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The complicated format means that the seeded top eight will be split into opposite sides of the tournament bracket, i.e. the first and second place sides will be treated equally, and split into one side and the other.
While the sides that finish from 9th to 24th go into a play-off round to join them, with the top eight of this middle section seeded.
They are then put in pairs, for example, 9th and 10th together, 11th and 12th together, and so on.
The duos are then put into fours based on their league finishes and there is then a draw to decide the match-ups from the quartets.
For example, 9th and 10th will play worst qualifiers either 23rd or 24th; 11th or 12th will be drawn against either 21st or 22nd, and so on.
This has allowed SunSport to simulate the play-off draw to show what we could expect in the last 16 of the tournament.
In our randomised draw, Liverpool’s top spot would mean they take on the winner of Juventus vs Celtic in the last 16 – throwing up a tricky tie for Arne Slot’s in-form Reds.
While Arsenal’s third place finish could leave them with the tall task of getting the better of the winner of the play-off tie between Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain.
However, they’ll be confident that they could advance past PSG given their 2-0 victory over the Parisians in the league phase.
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It won’t be a walk in the park for Aston Villa either with Unai Emery’s side in line to face the winner of Benfica vs Bayern Munich in the last 16.
Similarly to Arsenal and PSG, Villa have already played – and beaten – Bayern Munich in the league phase and will be buoyed by their previous result over the Bavarians.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
