The Champions League is almost back! On Thursday, the eagerly-awaited draw for the league phase will take place in Monaco. Obviously, with this being a UEFA-run competition, the ceremony will needlessly take well over an hour, as the European game’s governing body always insists on carrying out painfully awkward interviews while dishing out meaningless awards.
However, if last year’s event is anything to go by, we should learn the computer-generated fixture lists for all 36 participants after about 75 minutes of tedium. After that, we’ll be able to look forward to the actual football.
With that in mind, BALLGM is back again with its Champions League power rankings to let you know which sides are looking like potential winners ahead of the draw – and who could be in trouble from the get-go…
The Champions League is almost back! On Thursday, the eagerly-awaited draw for the league phase will take place in Monaco. Obviously, with this being a UEFA-run competition, the ceremony will needlessly take well over an hour, as the European game’s governing body always insists on carrying out painfully awkward interviews while dishing out meaningless awards.
However, if last year’s event is anything to go by, we should learn the computer-generated fixture lists for all 36 participants after about 75 minutes of tedium. After that, we’ll be able to look forward to the actual football.
With that in mind, BALLGM is back again with its Champions League power rankings to let you know which sides are looking like potential winners ahead of the draw – and who could be in trouble from the get-go…
Qarabag were utterly outclassed by Dinamo Zagreb in last year’s play-off round, losing 5-0 on aggregate to the Croatians, before suffering even more humiliation in the Europa League, where they finished bottom after winning just one of their eight games.n
However, the Azerbaijani side are all set to make just their second-ever appearance in the Champions League proper after scraping past Ferencvaros 5-4 on aggregate despite being beaten 3-2 in Wednesday’s nervy second leg in Baku. n
Anything from this point on is, therefore, just a bonus for Qarabag, because while Leandro Andrade once again impressed during the qualifying rounds, coach Gurban Gurbanov doesn’t have anything like enough quality to get his team out of the league phase.n
Few pundits gave Kairat any chance of qualifying for the Champions League proper for the first time in the club’s history after being paired with Celtic in the play-off round. After all, the Bhoys had only been narrowly beaten by Bayern Munich in the knockout phase play-offs last season.
However, Kairat showed remarkable resilience and impressive defensive discipline to hold Celtic scoreless for 210 minutes of play before prevailing on penalties to spark wild scenes of celebration at the Central Stadium in Almaty.
Still, there’s no getting away from the fact that the Kazakh champions will now face sides with far stronger forward lines than the champions of Scotland, making it tough to see the competition newcomers picking up many points in the league phase.
The average European football fan won’t be remotely familiar with Pafos – and that’s nothing to be ashamed about. The club was only founded in 2014, and last season’s Cypriot First Division title triumph was just their second major honour, after their Cypriot Cup success in 2024.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that they didn’t make an especially big splash in Europe last season. Pafos were routed 8-2 on aggregate by Elfsborg in the first round of Europa League qualifying before being knocked out of the Conference League last 16 by another Swedish side in Djurgarden.
Juan Carlos Carcedo’s men have, thus, done remarkably well to reach the Champions League proper, which they managed by going unbeaten in three ties, against Maccabi Tel Aviv, Dynamo Kyiv and Red Star Belgrade – all of whom they beat away from home. Nonetheless, it would be a massive shock if they got anywhere near the knockout stage of this season’s Champions League, even if their one high-profile player, former Brazil international David Luiz, knows what’s required to win this competition!
Slavia Prague narrowly missed out on a place in last season’s league phase, with the Czechs losing 3-2 on aggregate to Lille in the play-off round. However, their Europa League campaign was a disaster. Slavia collected just five points from their eight outings and finished 30th in the 36-team league phase.
As a result, little is expected of Jindrich Trpisovsky’s team. Slavia may have run away with last season’s Czech championship, but they’ve lost a couple of key players during the summer in Greece midfielder Christos Zafeiris and the exciting Senegal left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, who left for West Ham.
It could, therefore, be a long and painful league phase for Slavia.
Bodo/Glimt’s presence on this particular list is shocking in one way. We’re talking about a small club from a remote town in northern Norway that only won its first domestic championship in 2020.
A place in the Champions League proper has been coming, though. Bodo reached the quarter-finals of the Conference League in 2022, and the semi-finals of last season’s Europa League – after losing in the play-off round of Champions League qualifying to Red Star Belgrade. Consequently, it didn’t come as that much of a surprise to see them beat Sturm Graz to secure a spot in the league phase – even if the 6-2 aggregate scoreline was very noteworthy.
As one would imagine, Kjetil Knutsen’s squad isn’t stacked with stars, but captain Patrick Berg is an experienced Norway international, while Kasper Hogh is another one to keep an eye on after finishing as the joint-top scorer in the Europa League last season.
Just under 18 months after reaching the last 16, Copenhagen are back in the Champions League after spending last season in the Conference League, where they were rather unlucky to run into eventual winners Chelsea in the knockout stage.
The Danish champions have since seen the very promising Roony Bardghji leave for Barcelona, while Porto have snapped up midfielder Victor Froholdt, but Borussia Dortmund‘s former teen sensation Youssoufa Moukoko is a potentially outstanding addition to the attack.
Copenhagen have certainly looked good so far this season, going unbeaten through three qualifying rounds to book their place in the Champions League proper. Making the knockout stage won’t be easy, but FCK are more than capable of picking up points at Parken, as they’ve proved in recent years against the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Galatasaray.
Union Saint-Gilloise have experienced a remarkable revival in fortunes since being taken over by Brighton owner Tony Bloom in 2018. They earned a return to the Belgian top-flight in 2021 and, last season, ended a 90-year title drought thanks in no small part to the goals of Canada international Promise David and Croatia’s Franjo Ivanovic.
Unfortunately, the latter has been snapped up by Benfica, but Ecuador forward Kevin Rodriguez and Austria winger Raul Florucz have started the domestic season in decent form, and undefeated USG have picked up 11 points from their first five Pro League fixtures.
Consequently, USG fans are looking forward excitedly to watching their team in the Champions League proper for the first time ever – but their hopes of getting out of the league phase are likely to be severely hindered by having to play their home games in Anderlecht due to the Joseph Marien Stadium not being up to UEFA standards.
Easily one of the most intriguing teams in the competition, Olympiacos, who are owned by the very colourful Evangelos Marinakis, have gone from strength to strength since hiring Jose Luis Mendilibar in February 2024.
Less than four months after his appointment, the Basque boss, who previously won a Europa League with Sevilla, led Olympiacos to Conference League glory, thus making the Piraeus-based outfit the first Greek club to win a major European honour. A domestic double followed last season, meaning Mendilibar already ranks as one of the most successful coaches in Olympiacos’ history.
Unfortunately, teenage sensation Charalampos Kostoulas was sold to Brighton during the summer, meaning there will be more pressure than ever before on Morocco veteran Ayoub El Kaabi to continue defying Father Time up front. One thing is for sure, though, few Champions League rivals will relish a game against Olympiacos at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
The big question mark hanging over Ajax relates the spectacular collapse that saw them gift the Eredivisie title to PSV by dropping 10 points during their final five matches of last season. Club legend John Heitinga has taken over as coach from Francesco Farioli, while former captain Jordan Henderson has absconded to Brentford, meaning this feels like a fresh start for the four-time champions of Europe.
However, while they’ve made a positive start to their domestic campaign, with seven points from three games, it’s worrying that they’re relying on Wout Weghorst for goals, while the sale of Jorrel Hato to Chelsea is a devastating blow for both Ajax’s defence – and their attack, given the penetration he provided from full-back last season.
PSV had given up on winning last season’s Eredivisie after losing 2-0 at home to league leaders Ajax on March 30. However, the Eindhoven outfit took full advantage of their rivals’ epic implosion by reeling off seven successive wins to retain their Dutch title by a single point.
Unfortunately for coach Peter Bosz, he’s lost a lot of important players during the summer, including Malik Tillman, Noa Lang and Johan Bakyoko, while even veteran striker Luuk de Jong surprisingly signed for Porto.
As a result, just getting out of the league phase would represent a good result for PSV, who upset Juventus in the knockout phase play-offs last season before being humiliated by Arsenal in the last 16.
Club Brugge may have only managed to win the Belgian Cup last season, but their run to the round of 16 in the Champions League was like a fairy tale. After suffering a chastening 3-0 loss at home to Borussia Dortmund on the opening matchday, Nicky Hayen’s side snuck into the knockout stage thanks primarily to a four-game undefeated run that featured a famous win over Aston Villa and a draw with Juventus at the Jan Breydel Stadium.
Brugge then sensationally upset Atalanta in the play-offs, beating the much-fancied Italians 5-2 on aggregate, only for a two-legged rematch with Villa to prove a step too far for one of the tournament’s surprise packages.
So, while Brugge have lost some of their best young players over the summer (Ardon Jashari, Maxim De Cuyper and Chemsdine Talbi), nobody will be taking the Belgians lightly – especially not after they routed Rangers 9-1 in the play-off round.
It’s all change at Bayer Leverkusen – but probably not for the better. The Germans may not have hit the same heights last season as they did during their historic double-winning campaign of 2023-24, but Xabi Alonso’s side remained very competitive indeed, finishing second in the Bundesliga and reaching the last 16 of the Champions League. In both instances, they were only bettered by a much-improved Bayern Munich.
However, there is no longer quite as much optimism around the BayArena. Several hugely important players have left, including Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Jonathan Tah, but, most ominously of all, Alonso has been replaced by Erik ten Hag.
The Dutchman has an awful lot to prove after his unsuccessful spell as Manchester United boss, and Leverkusen losing their Bundesliga opener at home to Hoffeheim has done little to increase confidence in Ten Hag.
In Dino Toppmoller, Eintracht Frankfurt have one of the most respected coaches in Germany and his team have made an encouraging start to their 2025-26 season, routing Engers 5-0 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal before hammering Werder Bremen 4-1 on Saturday.
However, it would be a lot easier to get excited about Eintracht’s Champions League hopes had they held onto the two forwards that played such important roles in their qualification. Omar Marmoush was so good during the first half of the season that Manchester City snapped him up in January, while Liverpool signed Hugo Ekitike because of the way in which he excelled as a lone striker in the second half of the season.
Still, Eintracht may have unearthed another gem in Jean-Matteo Bahoya, while Can Uzun is another exciting prospect, meaning Toppmoller’s team will be one to keep an eye on.
The big news in Bergamo over the summer was the departure of Gian Piero Gasperini, the genius tactician who helped turn Atalanta into the best pound-for-pound team in world football. The man that led La Dea to Europa League glory in 2024 has left for Roma and been replaced at the helm by Ivan Juric, who was sacked by Southampton last season – which doesn’t exactly bode well.
Atalanta have, at least, managed to hold onto key midfielder Ederson, but Gianluca Scamacca is under enormous pressure to stay fit – and score goals – following the sale of Mateo Retegui, last season’s Serie A top scorer.
Not much, then, is expected of a team that reached the knockout stage of the 2024-25 Champions League but has made an uninspiring start to their current Serie A campaign.
Newcastle fans were in dreamland after their team ended a 70-year domestic trophy drought by upsetting Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley in March before securing a return to the Champions League via a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League.
However, the summer has been nothing short of a nightmare for the Magpies, who have seen star striker Alexander Isak go on strike in an attempt to force through a move to Liverpool, while at the same time missing out on one transfer target after another.
At the time of writing, then, it’s difficult to be upbeat about Newcastle’s chances of going far in Europe. Eddie Howe may be a fine manager but, right now, his team is unsurprisingly struggling badly for goals without Isak and also lacks strength-in-depth.
Galatasaray were devastated by last year’s failure to make the league phase after being upset by Young Boys in the play-off round, but they dealt superbly with that setback, with Okan Buruk’s side going on to win a league-and-cup double.
Victor Osimhen’s goals were key to Gala’s success, with the Nigerian scoring 37 times in all competitions, so there was a mix of delight and disbelief when it was confirmed that the club had managed to convince the on-loan striker to sign a permanent deal at Rams Park.
Gala are still trying to bring in a goalkeeper before the close of the transfer window – Manchester City’s Ederson is their top target – while a deal is close for Spurs midfielder Yves Bissouma. But what’s already clear is that with Osimhen having been joined in Istanbul by former Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane, and with ex-Inter captain Mauro Icardi back after injury, they will be great fun to watch this season.
Ruben Amorim’s November departure for Manchester United completely derailed Sporting CP’s Champions League campaign, with the Portuguese failing to win a single game after the coach’s move to Old Trafford. However, Rui Borges, who replaced Amorim’s successor Joao Pereira, belatedly steadied the ship at the Jose Alvalade and ended up leading the Lisbon outfit to a domestic double.
There’s obviously no denying that Viktor Gyokeres’ subsequent sale to Arsenal will hit Sporting hard this season. The Swede scored 97 times in 102 appearances for Sporting. But Borges still has plenty of attacking talent at his disposal, including Francisco Trincao, Conrad Harder, Pedro Goncalves and new arrival Luis Suarez, meaning Sporting could do some damage in Europe.
Who knows what to expect from Marseille?! The Ligue 1 outfit are one of the most chaotic clubs in world football, so it didn’t come as that much of a surprise to see them go into meltdown after being upset by 10-man Rennes in their Ligue 1 opener. Jonathan Rowe and Adrien Rabiot were both transfer-listed after a dressing-room row that coach Roberto De Zerbi compared to a brawl “in an English pub”.
In fairness, Marseille responded well to all of the controversy that followed, hammering Paris FC last weekend thanks to a couple of goals from the evergreen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – one of several intriguing summer signings.
So, while Marseille definitely have the talent to spring a surprise or two in the Champions League (particularly in front of their raucous fans at Stade Velodrome), they could also just as easily self-destruct.
Sacking Marcelino in 2016 was one of the worst decisions Villarreal have ever made, but at least they made amends by belatedly bringing him back two years ago. The former attacking midfielder is doing a sensational job with The Yellow Submarine, who are one of the most enjoyable teams to watch in Spain.
Indeed, Villarreal scored more goals than Atletico Madrid on their way to finishing fifth in last season’s La Liga, which got them back into the Champions League for the first time since sensationally reaching the semi-finals in 2022.
Consequently, nobody should underestimate the threat posed by a team that currently sits top of the Spanish standings and boasts a trio of revitalised attackers in Ayoze Perez, Tajon Buchanan and Nicolas Pepe.
Ernesto Valverde’s third spell at Athletic is going better than anyone could ever have expected, with the former Barcelona boss ending the Basques’ 40-year trophy drought with a Copa del Rey win over Mallorca in 2023 before then securing a return to the Champions League last season thanks to a fourth-placed finish in La Liga.
Valverde was unsurprisingly rewarded with a new contract in May, but there’s no doubt that the most significant renewal of the summer at San Mames was Nico Williams turning down a move to Barca in favour of signing a 10-year extension with Athletic.
Consequently, Athletic are in a really good place right now, as underlined by the fact that they are one of only five clubs with a 100 percent record after two rounds of the new Spanish season.
Borussia Dortmund did wonderfully well to get £50 million off Chelsea for Jamie Gittens – a player unsuited to Niko Kovac’s style of play – but the way in which that money has been spent hasn’t inspired a lot of confidence at Signal Iduna Park.
Yan Couto and Carney Chukwuemeka aren’t especially exciting signings, while it would be asking too much for Jobe Bellingham to make anything like the same impact at BVB as his brother Jude. However, Dortmund have, at least, held on to last season’s top scorer Serhou Guirassy, who netted 13 times during last season’s run to the Champions League quarter-finals, and key centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck.
Kovac has also overseen quite the turnaround since succeeding the hapless Nuri Sahin at the helm in February – a run of five consecutive victories saw Dortmund nick fourth place on the final day of the Bundesliga season – so the 1997 European Cup winners shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Juventus launched an ambitious new project last summer, but it flopped spectacularly and resulted in both coach Thiago Motta and sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli losing their jobs.
The previously highly-rated Motta didn’t even last the season, sacked not long after an embarrassing Champions League play-off round loss to PSV, and was replaced at the helm by Igor Tudor, whose appointment was only meant to be temporary. However, due to Juve’s inability to land a more-qualified alternative, the Croat was given the job on a permanent basis.
It’s fair to say, then, that plenty of questions remain over the quality of the Bianconeri’s board, coach and squad – even if Jonathan David represents a fine free transfer and Kenan Yildiz is a star in the making.
Adi Hutter has brought both excitement and stability to the Stade Louis II since taking over Monaco in July 2023. The Austrian led the club back into the Champions League at the first time of asking before then reaching the play-off round of last season’s knockout stage, while at the same time finishing third in Ligue 1.
The question now is whether Hutter, who is staunchly committed to playing entertaining football, can build on that success? Monaco have added more experience to a relatively young squad by bringing in Eric Dier and, far more notably, Paul Pogba, who is back after his doping ban, while they’re also going to try to resurrect the career of former Barca wonderkid Ansu Fati.
Les Monegasques certainly aren’t contenders for the title, then, but they should be once again very enjoyable to watch.
It’s no surprise to see Benfica in the league phase. They’ve now qualified for the Champions League proper for the 15th time in the past 16 seasons, though the Eagles really had to work for their spot this year.
After being pipped to the Liga Portugal title by Lisbon rivals Sporting CP, Benfica had to participate in the qualifying rounds. However, they beat Nice 2-0 home and away before edging out Fenerbahce 1-0 on aggregate thanks to Kerem Akturkoglu’s second-leg strike at the Estadio da Luz.
Unfortunately, Benfica lost Alvaro Carreras to Real Madrid during the summer, while club legend Angel Di Maria returned to Argentina, but Franjo Ivanovic is an intriguing addition to a team that reached the round 16 of both the Champions League and the Club World Cup last season.
Alarm bells are already ringing at the Metropolitano. Atletico Madrid were one of the few teams in Europe to spend big in last summer’s transfer window, but they ended up with nothing to show for their investment, with Diego Simeone’s side failing to win a single trophy.
Despite that, the board have once again backed the Argentine coach in the transfer market, but the Rojiblancos’ Liga campaign has got off to a worryingly poor start, with Atleti picking up just one point from their opening two games.
It’s, thus, difficult to know what to expect from the capital club. They only got knocked out of last year’s Champions League last 16 on penalties by Real Madrid, but whether they can go as deep this season will hinge upon Simeone belatedly getting his expensively-assembled squad to gel – and, perhaps most importantly of all, keeping star striker Julian Alvarez happy.
Antonio Conte did it again! At Napoli last season, the Italian coach immediately turned a team coming off the back of a terrible season into champions for the third time in his trophy-laden career. The question now, of course, is whether Conte can finally conquer Europe, given he’s never really made much of an impression on the Champions League.
The good news is that Napoli have done their best to back the notoriously demanding 56-year-old in the transfer market, with Kevin De Bruyne undoubtedly the most high-profile player to arrive at the Maradona over the summer.
The loss of Romelu Lukaku to a serious injury means Conte will be without his beloved No.9 for a significant chunk of the league phase, but new signing Lorenzo Lucca has serious potential, while Scott McTominay already looks capable of repeating last season’s heroics in Serie A.
Were it not for the weakness of the newly-promoted teams, Tottenham could have easily been relegated from the Premier League last season. As it was, though, the fourth-worst team in England’s top-flight qualified for the Champions League by beating the almost equally terrible Manchester United in the Europa League final.
The early signs are, though, that Spurs will be much stronger this season, primarily because they’ve replaced Ange Postecoglou with a very capable coach in Thomas Frank, who worked wonders on a shoestring budget at Brentford and already seems to have revitalised Richarlison up front.
So, while the north Londoners have missed out on a couple of big signings this summer (Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze), Mohammed Kudus and Joao Pahlinha are already looking like great additions, meaning a far-more solid Spurs side could do some damage in the Champions League.
We knew that the end of an era was approaching at Inter, but nobody expected it to be quite so brutal, with Simone Inzaghi stepping down as coach just days after the Nerazzurri were humiliated by Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Champions League.
The Italian’s replacement, Christian Chivu, is a very popular figure at San Siro and did a decent job keeping Parma up last season, but there are legitimate concerns over the strength of Inter’s ageing squad, which hasn’t been rejuvenated or strengthened in any significant way, shape or form.
The Serie A side still have plenty of quality players, including Alessandro Bastoni, Nicola Barella, Lautaro Martinez and Denzel Dumfries, and they have a wonderful ability for defying the odds, as they proved by upsetting Barcelona in the greatest semi-final tie ever played. However, it’s seriously hard to make a compelling case for Inter going all the way this season – particularly in light of the way their 2024-25 campaign unravelled.
Manchester City’s sudden regression was one of the stories of last season, with Pep Guardiola’s 2023 treble winners suffering such a dramatic dip in form following the loss of Rodri to injury that their tame play-off loss to Real Madrid didn’t really came as a surprise at all.n
What would be shocking, though, is if City don’t go much deeper in Europe this season. The state-sponsored English outfit have splashed a colossal amount of cash since the turn of the year, with Tijjani Reijnders already looking like the pick of several intriguing signings.n
Much will hinge, though, on Rodri getting over his worrying injury issues to solve City’s vulnerability in transitions, and Rayan Cherki proving a worthy replacement for club legend Kevin De Bruyne.n
Chelsea’s way of doing business may not to be everyone’s taste, but there’s no denying that progress is being made at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues having won last season’s Conference League, sealed a return to the Champions League via a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League and then won the Club World Cup thanks to a stunning win over PSG in the final.
Joao Pedro is already looking like a major upgrade on Nicolas Jackson, while Estevao Willian actually appears to have a chance of living up to the constant Neymar comparisons.
However, there is a worry that playing in the Club World Cup might eventually catch up with Enzo Maresca’s men, particularly as they’ll be competing in the Champions League this season rather than the far weaker Conference League, which allowed the Italian to rotate regularly last year, thus helping to keep his enormous squad happy.
Vincent Kompany enjoyed a successful first season in charge at the Allianz Arena, with a resurgent Bayern Munich reclaiming their Bundesliga crown from Bayer Leverkusen thanks in no small part to the goals of Harry Kane, who was understandably overjoyed at having ended one of the most famous trophy droughts in modern football.
The England captain is now hungry for more silverware and Bayern certainly look capable of mounting a strong Champions League challenge after finally getting their hands on a world-class left winger in Luis Diaz, who has made a fine start to his career in Germany.
The loss of Jamal Musiala to a serious injury is nonetheless a major problem for the Bavarians, who were knocked out in the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League by Inter and still look a little short of quality cover up top, in midfield and the centre of defence.
Real Madrid were always likely to ring the changes after a desperately disappointing season in which they failed to win a major trophy and were beaten four times in three different competitions by hated rivals Barcelona. n
As a result, Carlo Ancelotti has been replaced at the helm by the much-coveted Xabi Alonso, while the defence has been radically revamped, with Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold arriving from Bournemouth, Benfica and Liverpool, respectively, while the very promising Argentine attacking midfielder Franco Mastantuono has joined from River Plate. n
However, while European Golden Shoe winner Kylian Mbappe has already picked up where he left off last season, it’s going to take Alonso some time to get Madrid playing the way he wants and doubts remain over the make-up of a midfield that lost Toni Kroos last year before then bidding a fond farewell to Luka Modric during the summer.n
Liverpool were desperately unfortunate to run into a revitalised PSG in the last 16 of last season’s tournament after finishing top of the league phase – but, despite their agonising exit on penalties, the Reds still romped to a record-equalling 20th English title in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.
Consequently, big things are expected of the six-time champions of Europe – particularly as they’ve invested sizable sums of money in Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike as part of an ambitious overhaul of their attack.
However, as the close of the transfer window approaches, Liverpool still look short of numbers in attack, while the defence is proving a major cause for concern during the opening rounds of the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta claimed that there was no better team in last season’s Champions League than Arsenal. It was a ludicrous claim, of course, particularly as it came after the Gunners had lost both legs of their semi-final against eventual winners PSG.
However, the Gunners unquestionably took a big step forward last year by deservedly beating Real Madrid in the quarters, and they’ll be rightly confident of going all the way this year after once again investing heavily in their squad.
Indeed, if Viktor Gyokeres can prove the answer to their striking problem, the Gunners could definitely go close. The one concern, though, is that while Arteta can talk the talk, he’s yet to actually prove that he can walk the walk in the Premier League – let alone the Champions League.
Barcelona were brilliant last season, probably the best team to watch in all of Europe, and they were successful, too. In his first season in charge, Hansi Flick led a club with ongoing financial issues to a domestic treble, which included four fantastic wins over bitter rivals Real Madrid.
If there was one regret, though, it came in the Champions League, where Barca’s high-risk tactics eventually caught up with them during an epic semi-final loss to Inter.
Flick isn’t going to change his ways, though, and the squad isn’t much stronger, with Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford their only notable additions. Still, with Lamine Yamal and Pedri in their team, Barca remain once again capable of wowing the watching world.
The reigning champions and a decent bet to retain their title, PSG haven’t been particularly busy in the transfer market, but Illia Zabarnyi offers the quality cover in defence that Luis Enrique wanted, while the decision to replace Gigi Donnarumma with Lucas Chevalier was interesting to say the least, given the key role the Italian played in last season’s success.
PSG are not without their flaws – as we saw in the Club World Cup final – and they could well end up regretting their participation in the tournament in the United States. But let’s be honest here, playing in a domestic league without any credible title rivals gives them a massive advantage over their rest of their European rivals, as they have so many opportunities to rotate in between big games.
The bottom line is that with the best full-backs and midfield trio in the world, as well as four outstanding attackers, PSG will take some stopping again this season.
