Finally the time of year every soccer fan has been waiting for!! The Champions League final is coming up.
On June 1, 2024, the best of European football will win the title in the famous Wembley Stadium.
It’s no surprise that Real Madrid is making it to the final as they are leading the table by a whopping 17 points, but Dortmund is a bit of a surprise since they are 5th in the Bundesliga as of May 16.
As you can see, Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich was a competitive clash between two large clubs, but Real Madrid scraped by. Dor tmund led both legs of the match up against PSG and will be facing Real Madrid in the final.
How the Champions league works
Teams are selected by either being in the top 5 of their league (Spanish La Liga or the English Premier League, for example) or another route, for example being the defending champion of the UCL title last year.
The group stage
There are 32 teams chosen. The teams are divided into “pots” or groups of 4. In the group stage, teams play double round robin (where they play each team twice, or 6 games).
The knockout stage
The top two from each pot will advance to the knockout stage, eliminating the lower half of teams. The remaining 16 teams are divided into the winners and runner ups of each pot in the group stage and then drawn into their matchups. This helps ensure that weaker teams go against better teams so that the better teams aren’t knocked out early and can advance to the next round.
The knockout stage is set up like a one-sided March Madness bracket. Each team plays two “legs,” or matches against each other. The winners advance, and the losers are knocked out.
The defending champions
Last year Manchester City beat Inter Milan in the final to secure a victory and a treble (Champions League, FA cup, and Premier League cups) for the team. It’s interesting to think that neither team even made it to the semi finals this year.
My prediction is that Real Madrid will beat Dortmund 3-1.
Sources: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2819840-uefa-champions-league-explained-how-the-tournament-works
https://www.transfermarkt.us/uefa-champions-league/turnierbaum/pokalwettbewerb/CL