‘Brain-breaking’ intro to Champions League MOTD divides fans as BBC decision shows ‘game has never been more gone’
FANS have been left divided after seeing the intro Match of the Day’s Champions League highlights.
The show made its debut on Wednesday night following the opening two matchday fixtures of the tournament.
The show is hosted by Jason Mohammad and featured ex-pros Joe Hart and Stephan Warnock as well as French journalist Julien Laurens.
The intro features historic moments from the history of the competition.
This includes Didier Drogba‘s header against Bayern Munich, Tony Watts’ goal against Barcelona for Celtic and Zinedine Zidane‘s wondergoal in the 2002 final.
Clips were also shown of clubs such as Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid lifting the heralded trophy.
The tournament’s iconic music was played over the top at the start of the sequence before Match of the Day‘s classic music took over.
The majority of fans loved the mash-up of the tunes as they reacted on social media.
One posted: “The motd theme with clips from the Champions League is truly brain-breaking. I *love* that BBC have the CL highlights but this is going to take some getting used to.”
A second wrote: “Champions League anthem followed by the Match of the Day anthem? Solid from the BBC.”
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A third commented: “Champions League x MOTD. Backing it.”
A fourth said: “Champions League MOTD, what a treat.”
However, some were less keen on the combination.
One complained: “Mixing the Champions League theme with the MOTD one just doesn’t work.”
A second pointed out the running order of the match highlights with Celtic’s 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava up first.
They wrote: “Celtic on first on a Champions League MOTD. The game has never been more gone. The correct decision it’s just a scary world we’re living in.”
Manchester City started their Champions League campaign with a goalless draw against Inter Milan at the Etihad Stadium.
Liverpool and Aston Villa both started with wins as they beat AC Milan and Young Boys respectively.
Arsenal begins their tournament tonight against Italian outfit Atalanta.
New Champions League format
Each club will play eight matches in the opening phase – against seeded opposition, in a system designed to ensure that teams play opponents of similar difficulty.
The top eight teams in the “final” table will automatically go through to the last 16, where they will be joined by the eight play-off winners of ties between the sides placed ninth to 24th in the table.
Despite there being just eight matches in the opening phase, European matches will be spread over 10 midweek slots.
The new Champions League format also sees the implication of two additional qualifying spots.
They will be awarded to the nations that are top of the “country coefficient” chart each season.