Get ready for chaos on Champions League’s final night
Get ready for chaos on Champions League’s final night
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Uefa has successfully switched the format to guaranteed late drama in the initial phase of the competition, with Manchester City at risk of missing the play-offs. For the first time in this season’s new Champions League, players and managers are using one of those definitive football terms about a fixture. Pep Guardiola described Manchester City’s match with Club Brugge as “our final”. Unai Emery has been saying similar about Aston Villa’s home game against Celtic, with Luis Enrique echoing as much ahead of Paris Saint-Germain’s showdown in Stuttgart.
![[Man City must win their final game to avoid elimination from the Champions League]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/27/15/47/GettyImages-2195361674.jpeg)
There is finally an acute clarity about what teams need to do, which hasn’t always been the case in this new group stage. Many players even found the middle of the campaign quite strange, because the open format meant the stakes of any individual match weren’t obvious. No more.
![[Benfica and Barcelona combined to produce a chaotic classic]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/24/23/ESPA%C3%91A-PANORAMA_54532.jpg)
This final day is what it is all about, and what it’s all been building up to. Rather than a “final”, though, this last day is going to be unlike anything the game has ever witnessed. Wednesday night will be a true live TV event and appointment viewing for fans around the world.
![[Real Madrid have also struggled in the new format]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/27/15/19/GettyImages-2195356614.jpeg)
It is also a very modern development in how the place to be won’t be the big match where the best action has happened, unless you’re a club supporter. The place to be will be in front of screens, because something just as important is going to happen elsewhere.
![[Liverpool have progressed with a perfect record]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/27/16/39/GettyImages-2195182123.jpeg)
Football has never really had that to this degree before. Even on the final day of a Premier League season or a World Cup group stage, the real emotion is in the stadium. Here, there’s just going to be too much going on everywhere. You could miss the event by being there. People won’t know where to look, and that will be a good thing. The chaos that previously made this Champions League seem vague will now vigorously serve it. There are bigger implications for football’s future there.
