The group stage itself could be expanded in terms of numbers of groups, with
an extra knockout round before the last 16, allowing 32 more teams into the group stage.
Not exact matches
The
extra rounds of playoffs — a new fourth layer this year will have two wild - card teams in each league squaring off in
knockout games on Friday — have created a tournament flavor in which the hot team trumps the better team.
Then the Final 4 Teams in the
Knockout Round get an
extra 3 points.
From Saturday, the rest of the games in the tournament will be settled by
extra time or penalties as the
knockout rounds get into full swing.