casinosite   Album Posted Aug.18th, 2023, viewed 502 times

Why the UEFA Super Cup 'skipped' extra time and went to penalties

Last season's Champions League winners Manchester City (England) defeated Europa League champions Sevilla (Spain) 5-4 on penalties to win the European Football Association (UEFA) 2023 Super Cup in Piraeus, Greece on Sunday. About 40 days before the match, UEFA decided that if the tie was not settled in regulation time, it would go straight to penalties without extra time. This was the first time since the Super Cup began in 1973. As a result, despite having to go to penalties, City's players were able to lift the trophy just two and a half hours after kickoff.

The UEFA 2023 Super Cup, which pits the European Football Association (UEFA) Champions League champion against the Europa League champion in a one-off match to determine the "best of Europe," ended with a victory for last season's Champions League winners Manchester City (England). City won the Super Cup on Sunday in Piraeus, Greece, against Sevilla (Spain), 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 halftime tie.

It was a hard-fought match that went to penalties, but it didn't feel like it was stretched out. After 90 minutes of regulation time, the game went straight to penalty kicks, skipping 30 minutes of overtime.

This isn't the first time the Super Cup has skipped extra time. Just two years ago, the 2021 Super Cup between Chelsea (England) and Villarreal (Spain) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, ended in a 1-1 tie after 120 minutes of extra time, with Chelsea winning 6-5 on penalties. All five Super Cup matches in the last five years (2018-2022) have also gone to extra time, with all but one going to penalties. Two of those games went to penalties after extra time.

Earlier, in late June, about a month after the Champions League final, UEFA decided that the Super Cup final would go to a penalty shootout without extra time if the tie was not settled in regulation time. The news was reported by Spain's Marca at the time, which explained that "this will be the first Super Cup to be played without extra time if the tie is not settled in regulation."

UEFA's decision to skip extra time in the Super Cup was made for one reason. The heat wave that hit the world this year. Greece, the host country of the Super Cup, battled a heat wave last month. Daily highs of over 40 degrees Celsius were not uncommon. "The country recorded its hottest July weekend in 50 years on July 23, with a high of 46.4 degrees Celsius at the meteorological observatory in Gythio and 45.4 degrees Celsius in Nea Philadelphia, near Athens," according to foreign media.

The heat wave didn't end on Sunday, when the Super Cup was played. UEFA's match report at 19:56 recorded the stadium temperature at 28 degrees Celsius. That's 10 degrees higher than the stadium temperature of 18 degrees during last year's Super Cup in Helsinki, Finland. European media outlets explained the decision by saying that "UEFA was concerned about the very high temperatures in Greece and wanted to spare the players extra effort," and UEFA was right to be proactive.

Soccer has made many changes to adapt to the heat over the years. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil saw the introduction of "cooling down" breaks, which allowed players to stop playing and rehydrate in the heat. Last year's World Cup in Qatar was played in winter for the first time in World Cup history, avoiding the Middle Eastern summer. In preparation for the World Cup, Qatar envisioned and realized an air conditioner that cooled the entire outdoor soccer field, making a "big" debut for outdoor air conditioning at the World Cup. The 50th anniversary of the Super Cup, which began in 1973, 카지노사이트 saw a reduction in playing time for the first time ever.