Champions League turns into 'Gogglebox' as TNT Sports try to navigate the chaos
Champions League turns into 'Gogglebox' as TNT Sports try to navigate the chaos
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This, we were told, was what it was all about, what it had all been building to and why we’d come down this path in the first place. Of course, we all knew it wasn’t true. The headline motivations for upending the Champions League’s format were commercial and political, in delivering more matches for the television product and appeasing the biggest clubs with a security blanket of sorts, as well as a guarantee of games amongst themselves.
![[TNT Sport Goals Show]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/30/10/47/tnt3.png?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
But if willing to park that reality for a moment, there was little doubt this was a night with the potential for high entertainment and thrilling drama, far in excess of what the old group stage - once great but long stale - could deliver. Eighteen games kicked off simultaneously across the continent, only two of which were outright dead rubbers, with five carrying threats of complete elimination and a fair cluster of teams still with designs on making the top eight.
![[TNT Sport Goals Show]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/30/10/46/tnt2.png?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
This was the night on which, from a competition standpoint alone, the ends were to justify the means. And did they? Well, that sort of depends on what you’re in it for. It was fun, no doubt, in an instant gratification kind of way. A total of 62 goals were scored across the contests (several raising alarming questions about the state of goalkeeping in Europe’s elite competition), at a rate of one every 90-odd seconds through the night. At more than one stage, TNT Sports’ Goals Show threatened to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of them, like there being too much music on Top Of The Pops.
![[TNT Sport Goals Show]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/30/10/35/tntsport.png?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
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