It comes around every year, and every year our football mad office loves it- the Champions League is back today! It features the biggest and best teams and players in the world- just like the EWFM product portfolio, and this time it’s had a brand new revamp.In today’s blog we’ll be having a look at the biggest competition in the football calendar so you can understand why we’re all so enthralled.
The History
Why is the Champions League the biggest club competition? Well it has such a rich history behind it which makes it so prestigious, founded in 1955 to settle the debate of who was the greatest club which was already the big topic back then as it is today, it was actually Wolverhampton Wanderers who were unofficially declared the best in the world after winning a number of friendly matches.The competition was then formed with 16 teams from 16 countries with Real Madrid coming out on top, 69 years later and they are still on top with 15 wins making them the most successful club in the world by far! AC Milan are second in successes and yet are still way off with 7 trophies, with Bayern Munich and Liverpool having 6 wins and Barcelona with 5 rounding out the top 5 most successful clubs in history.As for the most recent champions? Well it’s Real Madrid winning again of course, but there are now 36 teams in this years competition striving to be the best in a brand new format.
The New Format
After 20 years in the previous format of 8 groups of 4 team followed by the one vs one knockout bracket we have a lot of changes. There will now be one big group stage of the 36 teams where each team will play 8 different opponents either home or away to try and finish top of the group stage, and the top 24 teams will advance to the next round of knockout matches.It’s a big change from the simple 3 opponents, home and away to be top of the group of 4 and let’s hope it is still as entertaining as it usually is!
The Favourites
Well let’s get the obvious one out the way first shall we? Real Madrid are the most successful and the reigning champions AND they’ve only improved! Already with some of the best players in the world like Courtois, Bellingham and Vinicius, they’ve decided to add the best player in the world in Kylian Mbappe. With an inability to be fazed by pressure it’s hard to look at anyone other than Real Madrid, but there are a few top clubs in the running as well.Manchester City have been the best team in England over the past decade being managed by Pep Guardiola, one of the best in football and are always up there with such an amazing team. Having won in 2023 they are surely the team putting the pressure on Real Madrid.Arsenal are the team that some of our office as desperate to finally win the competition (some are desperate for them to lose!), probably the biggest club to never win it looks like this is their best chance in a long time. But you can never rule out those footballing giants like Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Barcelona who have done this so many times before.
Handling Pressure
How do you win the Champions League? Well as anyone who’s watched Real Madrid will tell you, it’s how to handle pressure. And when it comes to handling pressure the only thing stronger than Real Madrid is our Safety Breakaway Couplings.Designed for only breaking when you need it to, the breakaway couplings will protect your set-up from breaking and your product from leaking onto the floor for if any accidents happen. We have the Industrial type which prevents the vehicle from driving off and taking your pipework with it, which will break at any angle and at specific breaking loads of your choosing.Our Marine unit will in contrast allow for movement at right angles to account for your ship swaying around when docked, it will only break when your ship moves away in a straight motion to prevent any damage to your ship or onshore equipment.We have a wide range of options available, a temperature range going all the way down to cryogenic for your liquid oxygen needs, any size you require and the ability to meet your liquid needs, your end connections requirement and of course, like Real Madrid the ability to handle the high pressures when you need it to only break at a specific force.
Contact information:
Tel : +44 (0) 1763 248650
Email : sales@ewfm.co.uk
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