Get ready for a first taste of the Bigger Cup’s Bigger Games Guarantee | Football

ONLY 189 GAMES LEFT

The Big Cup is back and bigger than ever. The new ‘league stage’ format includes four more teams than the old group stage, with each club playing two extra matches – meaning the total number of games required before the trophy is awarded to Real Madrid has risen from 125 to 189. What once seemed like a distant fantasy became very real in August’s head-shaking raffle, when matches were spat out by the dozen from UEFA’s supercomputer before anyone could say, “Is this a European Super League?”

Aside from UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin, who strutted through the ceremony like a peacock and showed a smug promo clip, few will have been more excited about the new draw than fans of Aston Villa. They are returning to Europe’s elite competition for the first time since their title defence was ended by Juventus in 1983. This year’s visitors to Villa Park include Juve, Celtic and Bayern Munich – an occasion that will be particularly poignant following the death of 1982 European Cup final hero Gary Shaw. The travelling Villans will be given trips to Monaco, Bruges and Bern (and Leipzig, but this is a big cup – everyone has to play Leipzig).

This week only, the Bigger Cup is played over three days – Arsenal are conveniently scheduled to entertain on Thursday night – and Villa have the honour of kicking things off in one of Tuesday’s two early games. Villa start under the ‘Swiss model’ against Swiss champions Young Boys, who are currently on a winning streak… (Football Daily checks the table)… Low point their league. Three points are surely a must and would allow Unai Emery’s men to sit back and have fun – our own stuttering Commodore 64 simulator suggests that five or six more points would probably give them a playoff place.

Later, the Milan-Liverpool match offers a first taste of UEFA’s Bigger Cup, Bigger Games guarantee, with two Big Cup collectors going head-to-head on opening night. Arne Slot’s smooth and quick start at the wheel at Anfield was halted by taciturn traffic warden Nuno Espírito Santo, and Milan coach Paulo Fonseca is also fidgeting in his new seat after winning four Serie A games. There will be a little tension in the air at San Siro, even though the group stage now extends beyond Christmas and both teams are certain to progress regardless of that result.

Tuesday’s other games – Juventus v PSV, Bayern v Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid v Stuttgart and Sporting v Lille – have a Gazprom-heavy whiff of past Big Cup group stages, a format so boring and predictable that many fans are willing to give this strange new system a chance. Don’t forget UEFA’s other promise: in the Bigger Cup, every game matters because of seeded knockout rounds. Will Bayern shut it down at 3-0 or score five or six goals to improve their goal difference? Will Madrid pull off an unconvincing 2-0 win and still win the trophy in May? And will the Bigger Cup’s glaring flaws be remedied by surreptitiously turning it into a de facto €$£ game? The answers come as if we didn’t already know them.

LIVE ON THE BIG WEBSITE

Scott Murray brings you the latest from Aston Villa 2-2 Young Boys at 5.45pm (all times BST), Rob Smyth takes the helm for Liverpool 1-2 Milan at 8pm, while Taha Hashim will be keeping an eye on the rest of the evening’s Bigger Cup and Milk Cup action on his watch.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Erling (Haaland) is scoring again… it’s starting to make us laugh… we love the Premier League so we watch all the games. We watch (Manchester City) too, which is normal. It doesn’t go to our heads. We have to focus on ourselves” – Jorginho on how the Norwegian striker’s relentless goal-scoring streak has given Arsenal a good laugh. Will they giggle when he hammers three goals past them next weekend?

The mailbox was deleted this afternoon. They thought the group was no longer active. They also said that most of the mail that went into the inbox was junk based on the sender information… sorry” – a letter from The Man confirming that our mailing address was deleted because he thought we had retired long ago. Yes. We told him we were still around. Maybe he should log in. Anyway, this means that if you won a prize last week, you will need to give us your address so we can mail you the prize. We lost all the old emails. Sorry about that!

Send letters to, yes, [email protected]. Today’s winner of the prizeless letter of the day is… The man Rollover. The terms and conditions for our competitions can be found here.

WELCOME TO LEAGUE ONE

And now to England’s third division, where, as you may have heard, a top-flight clash between Birmingham and Wrexham took place on Monday. Minority owner Tom Brady was in town to watch the Blues tussle with the high-flying Robins of Deadpool and Rob McElhenney. Someone at St Andrew’s made the ill-advised decision to take Brady across the away side to his seat next to David Beckham, whereupon he was treated to a deafening rendition of “Who the f*** are you?” The NFL legend took it in his stride and seemed to enjoy the offer, and was seen applauding excitedly after a brawl broke out when Paul Mullin got up close and personal with Birmingham’s Alex Cochrane’s leg. Some accused the Welcome to Wrexham star of bringing his teeth to the party. He denies this: “I know how it looks… but it didn’t happen,” Mullin ranted on TwiXer. “Although you can see his leg was thinking about attacking my mouth.”

Cochrane told Sky Sports after the game: “Honestly, I don’t really know if he bit me, I was on the ground. I think it was just a couple of punches out of nowhere but nothing much. Just nonsense.” The drama has given Brady plenty to think about and he left feeling good after a 3-1 win that put the Blues top of Wrexham. We look forward to a Hollywood movie being made about the early season clash, with Timothée Chalamet playing the role of Welshpool.

NEWS AND TIPS

In a similar scenario to our email account, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has complained that The Man did not consult footballers before making additional demands on them in the Bigger Cup. “Nobody asks the players what they think about adding more games, so maybe our opinion doesn’t count,” he growled.

Manchester City’s Rodri has an even more staunch view on the issue – it’s about the players’ workload, not our email – and believes strikes could be on the cards as more and more extra games are scheduled. “Yeah, I think we’re close,” he puffed. “If it continues like this, we’ll have no choice. That’s something that worries us.”

Chelsea’s Sophie Ingle is the latest WSL star to suffer the curse of a torn cruciate ligament. The Wales captain was injured during her club’s 9-0 friendly win over Feyenoord.

Yoane Wissa will be out for “a couple of months” after sustaining an ankle injury while playing for Brentford against Manchester City. “Unfortunately not good news… it’s very frustrating,” sighed Bees boss Thomas Frank.

Udinese are currently basking at the top of Serie A after overturning a 2-0 deficit to beat Parma 3-2, with Florian Thauvin scoring twice.

And Erik ten Hag told Antony to stop spouting his nonsense and earn the right to play for Manchester United. “He’s impatient,” groaned the United manager. “He wants to play. But there are rules in top-level football. You pick the team that has the best chance of winning the game.” Ouch.

It’s not here at the moment, but Chaos in the Box, David Squires’ new book, is coming soon. You can order it now from our bookstore and get 20% off.

WANT MORE?

As Villa return to the Big Cup for the first time in more than four decades, the veterans of the 1982 triumph talk to Ben Fisher about blistering boots, Billy Connolly and the temporary theft of the trophy from a Tamworth pub.

Aston Villa fans are allowing themselves to be exploited by not protesting vigorously against the exorbitant ticket prices for the Big Cup, regrets Barry Glendenning.

Jonathan Liew proposes the new beginning of I can’t believe it’s not the European Super League. Big Cup could be just another way to make the rich richer.

Arsenal’s new signing Rosa Kafaji talks to Suzanne Wrack about being inspired by Ronaldinho and playing against her former club in the Women’s Big Cup.

Will Unwin will face Barnsley’s Vimal Yoganathan, the first Sri Lankan Tamil player to play professionally in England, ahead of the Tykes’ Rumbelows Cup match against Manchester United on Tuesday night.

And our latest WSL preview highlights the title chances of a strengthened Manchester City.

Memory lane

It is April 2001 and a Yeovil Town mascot sits on the ball before his team’s top-of-the-table game against Rushden and Diamonds at Huish Park. The game was no classic. It ended 0-0 and the visitors stayed one step ahead of the Glovers, denying them promotion to the Football League.

BIGGER PUB?