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With 2018/19 now well underway, the season is set to kick into high gear this week with the return of Europe’s biggest club competition – the UEFA Champions League. The preliminary round has already happened, of course, but everyone knows it’s the group stage that really counts.
Some huge matches are already set for the group stage this season – Liverpool vs. Paris St. Germain, Tottenham vs. Barcelona, and Juventus vs. Manchester United amongst them – and with many of Europe’s biggest teams looking stronger than ever, this could be the most competitive Champions League in some time.
Here are 4 burning questions that should be answered by the return of the Champions League.
#1 Are we on the cusp of Premier League domination again?
It’s hard to believe, but it’s over a decade ago now since England’s Premier League dominated proceedings in the Champions League, too. Widely known as the world’s richest football competition, the 2007/08 season was probably the Premier League’s Champions League peak, as Manchester United and Chelsea made the final while a third English side, Liverpool, made the semi-finals too.
Ever since then, the competition has been largely dominated by the two Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona – of the subsequent 10 tournaments, 7 have been won by one of them – with Premier League sides struggling, for the most part, Chelsea’s triumph in the 2011/12 edition aside. But last season appeared to mark the beginning of a power shift again.
Liverpool surprisingly advanced to the final in Kiev; Manchester City looked dominant until they ran into Liverpool in the quarter-finals and while Real Madrid came out on top again, they were well beaten by Tottenham in the group stages.
With City and Liverpool looking stronger than ever now after some new signings, and Tottenham and Manchester United also still dangerous, could we be heading into another Premier League-dominant era? It’s certainly possible. England’s biggest sides have the most money, some great players and some of the world’s best managers, too. After this season’s competition, we should know more.
#2 How will Real and Ronaldo fare without each other?
No side has been as dominant in the Champions League in recent years as Real Madrid. The Spanish giants have won 4 of the last 5 Champions League competitions, and their most recent victory this past May was their third in a row. And no player was more important in creating that dominance than Cristiano Ronaldo. CR7 was criticised at times last season but still finished as the Champions League’s top scorer with 15 goals – the 6th time in a row he’d achieved that feat.
Now though, everything has changed. Not only do Real have a new boss in charge – Julen Lopetegui – but they’re also without their talisman as Ronaldo was surprisingly sold to Juventus in the summer. So the big question now becomes how will both parties cope without one another? In terms of their domestic competitions, Real have seemed fine so far – winning 3 of 4 matches and scoring 11 goals as Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale have picked up Ronaldo’s mantle between them.
For Ronaldo though, he appears to be finding the transition to Serie A tricky. While he’s appeared in all 3 of Juventus’s games thus far – all wins, too – he has yet to find the back of the net. But then the Champions League is where he tends to come to life anyway, and with Juve facing a team familiar to the Portuguese this week – Valencia – would anyone bet against him breaking his duck in that match?
Will Real be as powerful a side without their Portuguese talisman in the Champions League this season? And will Ronaldo be as effective away from the Bernabeu in his favourite competition? Both are huge questions and we’re about to find out the answers.
#3 Who will be the dark horse?
While the Champions League comprises of Europe’s greatest sides facing off against each other, despite all the great teams on show there’s always room for a load of upsets along the way. And somehow, at least one dark horse team tends to go deep into the competition every season. Last year saw Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool shock everyone by making the final, while 2016/17 saw heads turned by Monaco’s young side which starred the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Thomas Lemar.
So who could be that exciting dark horse team this season? Well, Liverpool are nobody’s dark horses any more thanks to last season’s performances and the amount of money they’ve spent strengthening their team since. And despite keeping manager Leonardo Jardim, Monaco have slipped greatly since bigger sides stole away the best parts of that great 2016/17 team. The likelihood of another run from them seems slim.
Could Tottenham spring some more upsets after their promising showings last season? Remember they beat Real Madrid in the group stage, were unlucky against Juventus, and haven’t sold any players. Or perhaps the surprise might come from France – not in the form of perennial contenders PSG, but from outsiders Lyon – who have an exciting, attack-based squad which includes Nabil Fekir, Moussa Dembele and Bertrand Traore.
It’s hard to predict to be quite honest – but it should be exciting to see a dark horse side rise through the competition and bloody the noses of some of the bigger sides along the way.
#4 Will it finally be PSG’s year?
No team has spent money quite like Paris St. Germain since their takeover by Oryx Qatar Sports Investments at the end of 2011, and since then they’ve seen a host of big-name players – David Luiz, Zlatan Ibrahimovic – and managers – Carlo Ancelotti, Laurent Blanc, Unai Emery – come and go along the way. But despite winning the Ligue 1 title 5 times since the takeover, they still haven’t captured the Champions League.
Will 2018/19 finally be the year where that changes? PSG have another new manager – the highly rated Thomas Tuchel, who did a tremendous job at Borussia Dortmund despite losing many key players – and strengthened their squad again in the summer by bringing in legendary Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who despite being 40 years old now, is still considered one of the best in the world.
PSG have tremendous defenders such as Thiago Silva, Thomas Meunier and Dani Alves; dangerous midfielders like Angel di Maria and Julian Draxler and perhaps the world’s most feared front three in the form of Neymar Jr, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani. Essentially, they have absolutely no weak areas. But then the same could’ve been said last season and after a blistering group stage, they still conspired to simply fold when faced with Real Madrid in the round of 16.
So will this year be different? Will the influence of Tuchel turn out to be the final piece in the jigsaw to allow PSG to win Europe’s biggest competition? It probably wouldn’t be popular with neutrals due to the money they’ve spent – but then who wouldn’t want to see Gigi Buffon finally win the one trophy that’s eluded him? PSG’s Champions League journey this season will make for simply compelling viewing.
