Liverpool sent Champions League message by potential rival awaiting UEFA clearance

Girona coach Michel has revealed he wants to face Liverpool in the Champions League next season. The La Liga side qualified for UEFA’s biggest competition for the first time after a brilliant campaign.

Currently one point ahead of Barcelona in the Spanish league standings, Girona are having an incredible season a year after finishing 10th in 2022/23. Real Madrid eventually won the La Liga title relatively easily, battling Barcelona’s stranglehold, but Girona have been their closest challengers so far.

Never qualified for the Champions League before, Girona, part of the City Football Group (CFG), — the multi-club model on which Manchester City are at the top – will be ranked low. And Michel wants to avoid facing Pep Guardiola’s men.

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“I would like to go to Liverpool because in Vallecas we always sang ‘Rayo-Liverpool’,” Michel told Spanish media Cadena SER. “But all the teams you talk about at European level, from Bayern to Juve, are teams that I’ve seen on TV every Wednesday and that I’m passionate about. I wouldn’t like Manchester City to be our rival because we have connections and differences from that, I don’t want to suffer.”

ESPN reported earlier this week that Girona were in fact waiting for confirmation from UEFA that they would be allowed to play in the Champions League because they are in the same ownership group as Manchester City. But RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg were allowed to play side by side in June 2017 and two years later were brought in to play in the same group.

The Champions League will be a little different when Liverpool return after a year outside Europe’s elite. The expanded format involves more teams and the old group system is gone — each team will be in a big table until the knockout stage. There will be eight group matches for each team and Liverpool will face different teams rather than the same ones home and away.

Due to the additional matches, the group stage will last longer and will not end until January rather than December. The so-called Swiss model is being introduced to freshen up the tournament and ensure there are more high-profile matches that count earlier in the competition. As it stands, in most groups it’s not that difficult to determine who will advance to the round of 16.