As Europe’s premier club competition kicks off, our football writers put forward their views on this season’s hopefuls, has-beens and the new talent
Paolo Bandini
Who will win it? Winning the Champions League requires a certain degree of good timing – just the fact of having key players healthy and in form at the business end of the tournament often plays a bigger role than I think some people realise. But since that stuff is nigh impossible to predict, I’ll go with what looks like the best squad – which for me is still Barcelona.
How will the Italian clubs do and why? I must admit, I fear the worst. Juventus have a tough group at a time when they can least afford it as they adjust to life without Carlos Tevez, Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal. Add Fernando Llorente into that mix and you have 10 of the team’s 17 Champions League goals last season. Facing City away first, before they have had time to integrate new players and systems properly, is especially poor timing and could put them on the back foot right away. Meanwhile, Roma face Barcelona first and need to show they have learned from last year’s 7-1 mauling by Bayern Munich. I could imagine a scenario where only one Italian side makes the knock-out stage and, as group runner-up, does not go much further.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? I don’t know if you can talk about the Premier League leaders being a surprise package, but I do think this will be the year Manchester City finally break through and go far. Reversing the point above about Juventus, I think beating last year’s finalists in their opening game could give City a big confidence boost and momentum going forwards.
Which player will have his breakthrough? If you’d asked a week ago, I would have said Nabil Fekir at Lyon, but the cruciate ligament injury he suffered while playing with France puts paid to that idea. Instead I’ll say Vincent Aboubakar at Porto – who has been banging them in in Portugal’s Liga Nos and hit three in four Champions League games last season.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Well last year they both got the same (as did Neymar …) but I’ll take Ronaldo to sneak back ahead this time around.
Who or which team may flop? Unfortunately, I do think it could be Juventus – for all the reasons outlined above.
Least excited about? A Real Madrid-Malmo mismatch.
Most excited about? Watching Malmo prove me wrong by overturning Madrid at the Bernabéu.
Dominic Fifield
Who will win it and why? It is hard to look beyond the usual suspects, and maybe Bayern Munich and Pep Guardiola will edge beyond the Spanish powerhouses this year.
How will the English clubs do and why? They should all emerge from their groups, though extending their involvement to the quarterfinals may be the limit of realistic ambitions. Certainly it is time for Manchester City to show their qualities at this level, while Chelsea will relish some escapism from their early season Premier League toils.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Lyon’s would have been an intriguing return to the Champions League had Fekir retained his fitness, but thriving without their young playmaker may be tricky. Regardless, they are a talented squad. The French teams will all be awkward opponents, as too will the less heralded Spanish of Sevilla and Valencia.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Alexandre Lacazette at Lyon must carry the team’s attacking threat while Julian Draxler, now with Wolfsburg, might benefit from a change of scenery.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Ronaldo may run amok in the group stage, though Thomas Müller may quietly accumulate a bigger season’s haul with Bayern.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus have started poorly in Italy and may suffer just as badly at this level after their summer overhaul.
Least excited about? The inquests into why English clubs are not claiming the trophy, with the inevitable accompanying calls for a winter break.
Most excited about? The new seeding system may add some intrigue to the group stage.
Raphael Honigstein
Who will win it? Take your pick from Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern. It will largely depend on who of those three will be in the best shape going into April and May, as the last three seasons have shown. The Spanish have more quality in the final third, Bayern a slightly better squad – but only if all key players are available.
How will the German clubs do and why? Bayern are among the favourites to win the competition but for Wolfsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen it’s about acquitting themselves as well as possible. Wolfsburg have a decent chance to make it into the last 16 even if they’re not the same force without Kevin De Bruyne. Gladbach have had a terrible start – four defeats in four games in the Bundesliga – the worst possible draw and will be without their key defender Martin Stranzl. The best they can realistically hope for is third place. Leverkusen, however, might well surprise a few people with their all-action approach and pacy attackers. They were unlucky not to knock out Atlético in the last 16 last year but look much improved this season. With a bit of luck, they’ll make it into the quarter-finals.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Leverkusen (see above) look a good bet to be this season’s dark horses. A good draw for Valencia and Atlético will help the Spanish contingent to trouble one or two bigger sides, and Manchester United could well be an unlikely success story. Their possession football lends itself to European competitions.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Leverkusen’s Brazilian left-back Wendell is a superstar in the making who will gain international recognition this season. I also like Marlos of Shakhtar, Bayern’s Douglas Costa and Paulo Dybala of Juventus.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Bayern’s relatively easy group stage should allow both Robert Lewandowski and Müller to run up some goals – they might provide better value.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus look poised for a disappointing season but if Sergio Agüero is injured, Manchester City might not be quite as daunting opposition in their group. Roma will get knocked out by Leverkusen, I believe, and I’m not sure Porto will manage to be competitive without Jackson Martínez.
Least excited about? Stories about teams having a tough time travelling to Astana in Kazakhstan and Bate in Belarus.
Most excited about? Seeing Gladbach back on the Champions League/European Cup stage for the first time in 37 years and PSG taking on Real Madrid in the group stage.
David Hytner
Who will win it and why? It’s very hard to look beyond Barcelona, not only because of the flair of their strikers but because of their decisiveness.
How will the English clubs do and why? Arsenal’s last-16 exit feels even more certain, given that they will probably finish as runners-up to Bayern Munich in the draw. I don’t see Manchester United or Chelsea going much further but this could be the year when City finally reach a quarter-final – or more.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament (all countries) and why?Wolfsburg came out of pot four but I can see them advancing. Does that count?
Which player will have his breakthrough? Victor Andrade, Benfica’s 19-year-old attacking midfielder from Brazil, has a big reputation at youth level and he can be expected to showcase his skills with no fear.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Messi to shade Ronaldo and, therefore, win the Golden Boot.
Who or which team may flop?Juventus. Last season’s beaten finalists have lost key players and have a devilishly difficult group. They may not escape it.
Least excited about? Surprisingly, I’m fairly positive about all of it! Especially now that Arsène Wenger doesn’t have the press on the Arsenal team flight, so we are spared the dreaded bolt back to the airport after away ties when there is, essentially, no time to file.
Most excited about? As usual, the theatre and sheer sense of grandeur about the knockout ties, when there is the feeling that cities come grinding to a halt while they are played out.
Jamie Jackson
Who will win it? Barcelona. No club has ever retained the competition in the Champions League format. Barça can do so because their rivals remain below their stellar level and because the hunger of Luis Suárez will continue to drive the club forward.
How will the English clubs do? Manchester United and Manchester City may be surprise semi-finalists. Louis van Gaal knows how to win the European Cup and City’s Manuel Pellegrini now has a squad equipped to go deep into the competition. Chelsea and Arsenal may fall in the last-16 for similar reasons: being inferior teams that have doubts over who will score the goals.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Paris Saint-Germain. Despite the cash injected into the club, if Laurent Blanc’s team reach the final it would still be a major achievement and would announce PSG as a new continental heavyweight.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Memphis Depay has been billed as United’s next big thing but Anthony Martial may just catch fire and terrorise defences under the European lights with his penchant for a dribble and ability to glide into the danger area.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Lionel Messi. Playing alongside Suárez and Neymar means the Argentinian genius should be able to feed on a buffet of chances in each and every match.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus. Last year’s finalists have lost Carlos Tevez, among others, and may struggle to emerge from a Group D containing City, Sevilla and Mönchengladbach.
Least excited about? The moans about the group stage being a phoney war.
Most excited about? The group stage. The last 16. The quarter-finals. The semi-finals. The final.
Julien Laurens
Who will win it? I think Barcelona will retain the trophy and be the first team in the history of the Champions League to do so. They were impressive last season and will be even stronger from January when their summer signings, Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan, will be eligible to play. I cannot see anyone being able to stop their incredible front three and their collective strength.
How will the French clubs do? Last season was very good for the French clubs with PSG and Monaco reaching the quarter-finals and it will be very hard to reproduce that this time around. I don’t think Lyon have enough to get that far, especially without Nabil Fekir, who is out injured until March. On the other hand, PSG are aiming for a semi-final spot and have a chance of being successful. They will need a bit of luck in the draw but knocking out Chelsea in the last 16 last season was a big psychological boost. And Ángel Di María could make a huge difference too.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Valencia get my vote. They fought hard to knock out Monaco in the play-offs. Their group with Lyon, Gent and Zenit St Petersburg will enable them to get stronger and stronger in the competition and finish top of it. Aymen Abdennour is a perfect replacement for Nicolás Otamendi at the back and they have options up front too. I really rate their manager Nuno as well.
Which player will have his breakthrough? I would pickAnthony Martial as revelation of the season in the competition and I would have picked him even if he had not scored a beauty against Liverpool at the weekend. He is a special player and he will express all his potential in this Manchester United team as they will play on his qualities. Plus, Van Gaal is the perfect coach to guide him to a new level.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot?Ronaldo will finish top scorer in this season’s edition. I think Real Madrid’s group, with Malmo and Shakhtar as well as PSG, will offer him opportunities to score a lot of goals. And Madrid will go far too. Last season, Neymar and Messi shared the Golden Boot with him but I feel the trophy is all his this season.
Who or which team may flop? Porto. I am still not convinced by Julen Lopetegui, their manager and although they did very well last season to reach the quarter-finals and cause problems to Bayern Munich, I don’t think they will do well this season. They lost key players such as Jackson Martínez, Alex Sandro and Danilo this summer and, apart from Iker Casillas, I am not so sure about the new arrivals at the club.
Least excited about? Having the final in Milan! I have no problems with Milan, a lovely city, but San Siro is an old stadium and with all the brand new, modern and exciting arenas in Europe, surely Uefa could have picked a much nicer venue for this year’s final.
Most excited about? Seeing how Europe’s most promising young players will do in the competition this season: Julian Draxler with Wolfsburg, Ángel Correa and Óliver Torres with Atlético, Corentin Tolisso with Lyon, Rafinha with Barcelona, Jonathan Tah with Leverkusen, Joshua Kimmich with Bayern, Anthony Martial with Manchester United, Danilo with Real Madrid, José Luis Gayà with Valencia and all the other wonderkids taking part in the Champions League this season.
Amy Lawrence
Who will win it? Argh it’s so crazily early for these crystal ball questions … If pushed I will go for Barcelona, because of the Messi-Suárez-Neymar axis, and because it’s about time somebody retained the Champions League.
How will the English clubs do and why? All four should qualify from their groups, but even if one of them gets their act together in the knockouts, they will still need a load of luck to get past the obvious favourites.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Manchester City, if they can keep their most important players fit. Ready to go far this time.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Although not new to the competition, there are a few players who can make a fine impact a new clubs. Looking forward in particular to seeing what Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman can do in Bayern colours.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Has to be hat-eating time if it is anyone else, despite Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Eran Zahavi having a seven-goal head start from qualification.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus don’t look capable of repeating last season’s heroics.
Least excited about? Gazprom adverts.
Most excited about? The excitement of the knockout rounds. And before that, Zlatan doing something only Zlatan would do when he returns to Malmo.
Sid Lowe
Who will win it and why? Real Madrid. They have Rafa, remember. And Ronaldo (although maybe Bayern Munich will get it right this time).
How will the Spanish clubs do and why? On the evidence of European competition over recent years, better than anyone else.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? I don’t know. It would be a surprise if I did. Sevilla might have been (if they even count as a surprise) but their group – with Man City, Juventus and Gladbach – means that it’s hard to imagine. Mind you, maybe that just makes them even more of a surprise.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Easy answer is Anthony Martial after this weekend. Would James Rodríguez count as a breakthrough after the 2014 World Cup? Probably not, but he was looking superb until his recent injury. What about Kevin De Bruyne? Do these guys even count as breakthrough? Possibly not.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Ronaldo more of a striker than Messi, so it is tempting to say him but that hasn’t always been a guarantee of anything.
Who or which team may flop? Spain’s ‘other’ team has not done well in the last two years, which was a real pity. Maybe the pattern continues with Sevilla or Valencia. Hope not.
Least excited about? First-round games with nothing much riding on them … knockout ties where you already know who is going through.
Most excited about? Apart from the obvious: Messi, Ronaldo, there’s something about Lewandowski that I always really enjoy watching and I would love to see Antoine Griezmann make a real impact on the competition. David Silva and Juan Mata too.
Barney Ronay
Who will win it? Bayern Munich. Douglas Costa, Arturo Vidal, Arjen Robben and David Alaba can add the drive, muscle and high-class funky full-back stylings missing last year. And Guardiola will work himself into a state of tearful exhaustion going after it.
How will the English clubs do? Manchester City will have their best year yet. Manchester United will look more at home than they do playing teams outside the Premier League top six. Arsenal will be Arsenal. Chelsea, who knows, but they’re not going to be scaring anyone right now.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? The entire dynamic of the competition is geared towards minimising surprises. Maybe Nottingham Forest will win it this year. Or Steaua Bucharest. Or, er, Barcelona. Dinamo Kiev might benefit from strife elsewhere in their group.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Raheem Sterling, who, 20 minutes in Manaus aside, has never done anything outside the Premier League but looks to have found a good role in an improved team.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Robert Lewandowski could have a good one. Ronaldo certainly looks lean, motivated and slick. Or at least, he does in his new perfume adverts.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus had better get a move on. A lot of new players to bed in, but they have a good team-building manager. Otherwise: PSG.
Least excited about? None of it. Despite the same teams hogging it year after year, all the dead rubbers, this is still a brilliant competition.
Most excited about? Quite looking forward to seeing how this Louis van Gaal United does in a competition where Van Gaal-ism has been so prevalent down the years. Would also love to see one of the really big teams ambushed early on. Malmo. Bate Borisov. You know what to do.
Daniel Taylor
Who will win it and why? Barcelona, because they take football to its highest level. Hopefully, in the process, the strangely maligned Luis Enrique will receive more credit than he managed last season.
How will the English clubs do and why?All will get through the group stages; none will make it to the final. For the first time, maybe Manchester City will be England’s last team standing.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I can’t see one. It will still be the usual suspects – “the European sharks”, José Mourinho calls them – in the final stages of the competition.
Which player will have his breakthrough? Douglas Costa of Bayern Munich. A lot of Premier League clubs looked closely at the Brazilian but for some reason none followed up their initial interest. His early form in Munich shows that might have been an error.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot? Messi, but it really is a toss of the coin between these two. We are lucky to have them playing at the same time.
Who or which team may flop? Sevilla won the Europa League last season but have not managed a single victory in la Liga so far.
Least excited about? Manuel Pellegrini’s press conferences, when he seems to forget that this is a way for communicating with supporters. Vincent Kompany, to give him his due, spoke with great thought and eloquence before the Juventus game.
Most excited about? 28 May 2016, San Siro. The final is always one of those occasions when we football writers should be reminded how privileged we are to be there. Also: watching the warm-up routines between Dani Alves and Lionel Messi. Twenty-yard volleys played as keepie-ups. It’s hypnotic.
Jonathan Wilson
Who will win it? Barcelona. They still have the best balanced side with a ridiculous attacking trident and they seem to have been re-energised by Luis Enrique.
How will the English clubs do? Collectively, they’ll surely do better than last season, although none perhaps is quite good enough to win it without a significant streak of fortune. City may at last have lucked out with a group that probably isn’t as hard as it initially appeared, and they probably now have a squad that could carry them to the final with a fair wind, so long as the interface between the back of midfield and the back four is better than last season. United may actually have a better chance of winning the Champions League than the league – it looks as though their problem this season will be drawing games they ought to have won; in knockout ties that’s less of an issue than over a 38-game season – but at the moment they’re nowhere near cohesive enough. Arsenal are Arsenal so will probably go out bravely in the last 16 or quarter-final having played much better in the second leg than the first. And Chelsea may have the benefit that the league will be out of reach by February and so it won’t be a priority – assuming their form improves sufficiently to get them to the knockouts.
Which club will be the surprise of the tournament? Dynamo Kyiv look a more coherent side than they have for years, something that was evident in the Europa League last season. Serhiy Rebrov is a coach who seems to have the background and mentality to modernise the philosophy instilled by Valeriy Lobanovskyi, the legacy that made Dynamo what they are but has perhaps of late held them back. Their group isn’t the hardest either.
Which player will have his breakthrough?
I’m not sure if you’d call it a breakthrough, but a player who I’m amazed is still at the club and who will almost certainly be moving if he enhances his reputation this season is Grzegorz Krychowiak, Sevilla’s Polish holding midfielder who was superb intheir Europa League triumph last season.
Who will score more goals, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, or will someone else claim the Golden Boot?Messi, if only because Barcelona will probably get further in the competition.
Who or which team may flop? Juventus. Even before their dismal start to Serie A, it was hard to see them matching last season’s feat of reaching the final. Their transfer business has cost them key players – Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal in particular – and while their first-choice midfield is impressive, both Sami Khedira and Claudio Marchisio are extremely injury-prone.
Least excited about? Arsenal’s group: obvious two to go through, two to scrap for the Europa League place.
Most excited about? Seeing how far Lyon’s largely homegrown side can go.
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