UCL worth 2-billion euros
It’s make or break time for the 12 teams vying for the last six places in the UEFA Champions League group phase, with qualification worth 15-million euros, and today Galatasaray and Young Boys Berne can make their dreams of playing in the biggest league come true.
By Mark Gleeson
The UEFA Champions League is, for a number of reasons, regarded as the top club competition in world football.
From a monetary perspective, participation can net clubs a significant financial windfall, especially once in the group phase. Real Madrid collected 83.2-million euros in Champions League performance-based prize money when they won in 2022, including an additional 4.5-million euros for winning the UEFA Super Cup in August 2022.
There is a total purse of 2.032-billion euros for this season’s competition, making tonight and tomorrow’s play-off second leg games a real matter of make-or-break for the 12 clubs still battling for a place in next month’s group phase.
Reaching the group phase alone is worth 15-million euros and it grows with each point gained.
There are six ties to decide the last places and after last week’s first legs Galatasaray of Turkey and Danish champions FC Copenhagen look the best placed.
They were both away winners and with home advantage in the return leg, should be through to Thursday’s draw, where the 26 automatic qualifiers, as well as the six play-off winners, will be split into four seeding pots, to be confirmed on the morning of the draw.
Galatasaray won 3-2 at Molde of Norway while FCK won away against Polish rookies Raków Czestochowa, courtesy of an early own goal.
Away draws for PSV Eindhoven and Young Boys Berne also sees them in pole position in their respective ties. PSV held Glasgow Rangers to 2-2 in Scotland last week but will be mindful of the fact that it was the same story this time last year when the two clubs also met at the same stage of the Champions League preliminaries.
PSV thought they had a foot in the group phase after drawing in Glasgow, only then to lose at home in the return and see Rangers progress instead.
Greece’s Panathinaikos upset Olympique de Marseille in the previous preliminary round and will be looking to overcome Braga tonight while another Greek side AEK Athens also have a chance to progress if they can turn around a 0-1 deficit against Royal Antwerp of Belgium.
In the League Cup in England, there are two all-Premier League ties with Fulham hosting Tottenham tonight and Nottingham Forest home to Burnley tomorrow. Managers increasingly like to use this competition to give game time to fringe players and so these are always tough matches to predict given the uncertainty of the line-ups.