UEFA’S PLAN B

The wave of English dominance actually started last season, 2017/18, when 5 English clubs took part in the main draw and all five of them got through the group stage safely – four of them as group winners; that’s a dominance not seen since the 2008 season. This season, with no EUROPA Cup winner in their midst, only 4 came to Europe, and again, all 4 got through the group stage – but only one was a group winner.

Two prominent ‘faces’ were missing this time – Chelsea, and Arsenal for the second year running. Arsenal had been UEFA’s ‘whipping boy’ for the past one decade, and their new Plan B which started in 2016/17 was obviously designed for ‘stubborn outsiders’ like Arsenal. However, with Arsenal missing for the past two seasons, Plan B hasn’t been going very smoothly.

Plan B was designed to set up landmines for targeted teams (and these are mainly the English sides). UEFA knows that the best English teams will always make the Top 2 in their groups, and Plan B is to ensure that irrespective of their group placing, their Round of 16 opponent will be one of Europe’s giants.

The first casualty of Plan B was Arsenal in 2016, who after topping a group that included PSG (and were therefore expecting a weak Round of 16 opponent), found European giant Bayern Munich waiting for them in R16. Needless to say, Arsenal were promptly eliminated. PSG were the main target last season. After seeing off the challenge of Juventus to top their group, they were rewarded with a tie against the reigning champions Real Madrid, and made an early exit from the UCL.

Early exit: that’s precisely what UEFA targets for those clubs that threaten to upstage the status quo. With the events of last season in mind, and given what we’ve seen already at the group stage, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United will be UEFA’s targets this season; so expect them to get the most difficult opponents at the Round of 16!