Last Thursday, a ceremony took place that will go down in Champions League history. The highly acclaimed competition that brings together the best teams from all over Europe will face an unprecedented change this season. The group stage has been completely eliminated from the tournament, being replaced by a kind of "play-off" between 8 teams.
In this way, four groups were created, each consisting of eight clubs within a single group of 36 participants. In this methodology, the first 8 teams with the best results will automatically advance to the round of 16. On the other hand, the clubs that are between 9th and 24th will play the round of 32, which will give the other 8 teams the chance to play against the top ranked teams.
In this way, those who finish the first phase between 25th and 36th will be out of the competition and will not be able to participate in the Europa League. Along with this, a new dynamic appeared, and that is that of those 8 games that each team will have to play, four will be at home and four away. And it is these long-awaited dates that UEFA has recently published, including, obviously, those of Atlético de Madrid.
This will be the path of the colchoneros
At the ceremony, both Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo outlined the roadmap for all the clubs. In the case of the team led by Diego Pablo Simeone , they will begin their journey in this "new" tournament facing Leipzig at the Cívitas Metropolitano on September 19 at 9:00 p.m. They will then travel to Portugal to face Benfica at the Estadio da Luz on October 2 at 9:00 p.m.
They will return to the Metropolitano on 23/10 at 21:00h against Lille , and will head to the Parc des Princes to play against PSG at the same time on 6/11 . The unknown for many, Slovan Bratislava , will visit the Colchoneros' stronghold on December 11 at 18:45h . The same time slot at which they will start the match in the CzechRepublic against Sparta Prague .
Both matches will be the only ones to start at 18:45 , as the last two rounds will be, again, at 21:00 . First against Leverkusen on January 21 , recalling the fateful night that occurred two seasons ago when they eliminated the red-and-whites from the Champions League at the Metropolitano (same venue). And, finally, this phase will end on January 29 against Salzburg , a common fixture in Atlético de Madrid 's groups in recent years.
So, Cholo Simeone 's boys already know what awaits them in the so-called European Cup . It will not be an easy road, as they will have to visit stadiums from which it will be difficult to get points. However, the red-and-white offices are confident of getting all the points possible at home and getting good results in the expeditions that will be, above all, very wintery.