4 burning questions that the 2018/19 Champions League could answer

#2 How will Real and Ronaldo fare without each other?

Can Cristiano Ronaldo succeed in the Champions League away from Real Madrid?

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.