For their first home games in the Champions League in more than 20 years, Newcastle and Lens will walk out to rousing ovations in their famously noisy stadiums this week.
Union Berlin makes its Champions League debut in the borrowed 75,000-capacity Olympic Stadium that will be a raucous home in the competition for a team that played in the German third tier as recently as 2010.
Don’t tell fans at these three clubs the Champions League group-stage format that is being dumped next year became stale and predictable.
Newcastle, Lens and Union were nowhere near the debate when the European Super League was plotted, launched and failed in 2021 by club owners who took the Champions League for granted and craved extra riches and control running their own show.
Exactly two years ago, Newcastle was still in a grim winless run in the Premier League relegation zone.
The Champions League survived the closed-shop Super League threat and now includes long-time absentees and a debutant that qualified on merit – fourth in the Premier League, runner-up in France’s Ligue 1 and fourth in the Bundesliga.
Newcastle will show Kylian Mbappé and Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday the atmosphere 52,000 create inside St. James’ Park.
Lens supporters react during the Champions League Group B soccer match between Sevilla and Lens at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan in Seville, Spain, Wednesday. Sept. 20, 2023. Credit: AP/Jose Breton
Lens welcomes Arsenal on Tuesday to Stade Bollaert-Delelis where the capacity of 38,000 is bigger than the town’s population.
Union is using the Olympic Stadium – which hosted the 2015 Champions League final – because its intimate Stadion An der Alten Försterei (Stadium at the Old Forester’s House) is too small for home games in Group C, starting Tuesday against Braga.
“A Champions League for all Unioners,” club president Dirk Zingler explained to club members. “We were guided by this idea and we will try to ensure that as many people as possible can afford…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply