Receive the FREE email from the Mirror Football newsletter with the main headlines of the day and movement news
We’re back, not exactly the same.
Last season’s Champions League, however, was able to resume and end in cases that changed for apparent reasons, but for now, we are back in the classic format as the 2020-21 organizational stages begin on Tuesday night.
Bayern Munich lifted the famous trophy in Lisbon 59 days ago, and germans are recognized as favourites when European heavyweights converge on the first continental table.
But can there be surprises?
Here, before the start, we take a look at the 32 clubs participating in the festival and rank them according to their probability of making the most of it.
Note: This is not necessarily a rating of the most productive clubs, however, your chance of winning the Champions League is based on the draw of the organization stage, the strength of your team and its current form.
One of Europe’s evocative names returns to the Champions League for the first time in 25 years, and he does so at Camp Nou.
Since the Hungarians also placed themselves in an organization with Juventus, a repeat of their third place in 1995 is the most productive thing to expect.
Dynamo Kiev will have to say about it.
Having reached this level for the first time, the Danes seem to be in a position to have fun.
They were selected from an organization that made the purists pale and included Liverpool, Ajax and Atalanta, the Brentford’s Supreme-owned team Matthew Benham, created to serve their role in this company.
It’s a matter of them having enough to beat one of them.
Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Salzburg are actually a bigger organization than Juventus, Atletico and Bayer Leverkusen last year, so the Russians will have at least a smart chance in third place.
Nothing more than that.
Third in their organization last season, then semi-finalists in the Europa League, Ukrainians deserve to be above that if we have the list only in capacity.
But after joining through Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Borussia Moenchengladbach in Group B, you worry about what is an old Shakhtar band.
Well overdue by Manchester United in the Europa League last season, the Belgians will rejoice in what turns out to be an open group.
It is a shame for them that Borussia Dortmund, Lazio and Zenit St. Petersburg are bigger than them.
Unfortunately, Emmanuel Adebayor, Robinho and Gael Clichy have escaped from turkey’s former Premier League champions, but there are still many more recognizable names.
Demba Ba, Martin Skrtel, Nacer Chadli and Fabio da Silva will emerge from the beginning of the last decade and into an organization that includes Fabio’s former team, Manchester United.
The presence of Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig means that Basaksehir is in last place.
A successful team, well supported through its Russian owner and to cause sensation in EuropeArray. Chelsea is also part of the E. de Krasnodar.
Londoners will be the toughest control for the Russian Premier League team, but they will break their heads in front of them, as well as against Sevilla and Rennes in what looks like an entertaining group.
Former Newcastle midfielder Remy Cabella and Swedish striker Marcus Berg can be a handful.
Beating one from Barcelona or Juventus in Group G would be the story of this season and many others of the Champions League, and even if that seems to happen, a third position above Ferencvaros awaits ukrainians.
Veteran boss Mircea Lucescu is in his fifteenth and sixth decade as a technician, his long agreement with Dynamo’s rival, Shakhtar Donestk, means his summer date hasn’t gone very well with club fans.
Beating through one of the big ones can cause you trouble.
Erling Haaland and Takumi Minamino made Salzburg laugh on their way to third place, Liverpool and Napoli last season, and their organization this time is just as intimidating.
Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid will position them in the two most sensible positions, however, in players such as Patson Daka and Dominik Szoboszlai, they have players who make the third position a fortress.
The eternal competence of the level of the organization depends almost on the quality of its parties to the conflict in terms of its classification possibilities, and this time they could be talented.
They may not beat Manchester City, but they can see Marseille and Porto as two groups that can attack as they seek success in the 16th round for the first time since 2014.
The Russians have enough experienced activists to complicate their opposition’s lives, and a position in the two most sensitive is not out of place when faced with Dortmund, Lazio and Club Bruges.
If they do, it will be their first knockout appearance since 2016, a decent race in the Europa League can also be on the horizon.
The Bundesliga squad can check the same day, and their home games with Real Madrid and Inter Milan in Group B may end up being one of the most visible matches in the competition.
Moving on to those two to qualify is a matter, and you’d probably have to settle a spin in the Europa League.
One of France’s biggest names is the smart football game with the rejuvenated Andre Villas-Boas, and they hope to get out of Manchester City Group C, which is quite open to Pep Guardiola’s men.
Olympiakos and Porto will be desirable opponents, but both players will have a player as skilled as The Blue Coast favorite, Dimitri Payet.
Eighteen months after being seconds away from facing them in the Champions League final, Ajax will face Liverpool on Wednesday looking as far away from this 2018/19 team as possible.
The names of stars have disappeared and have been replaced by promising talents and those who have returned to Dutch football, such as former Everton midfielder Davy Klaassen.
Young strikers Antony and Lassina Traoré can cause unrest in an organization that turns out to be full of goals, where a war position is likely at the moment with Atalanta.
Making their first appearance at the organization level since 2007, Italian giants may be to blame for focusing too much on the Champions League, given that they have already started the season in Serie A.
Two defeats and a draw in 4 games are very good, but his team from dortmund, Zenit and Club Brugge seem to be a kind of reintroduction to the most sensible of European football.
Ciro Immobile, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and corporate are enough to get out.
One of the highlights of the Champions League is back and launched into an organization that will be best for them.
The star players of the Portuguese club will have the opportunity to show off against Manchester City in the type of fit in which reputation is established and lucrative transfers are guaranteed.
They will also face Olympiakos and Marseille, as a position in the circular of 16 will be the expected result within the club.
They may have lost goalkeeper Edouard Mendy in the Warplanes of Group E, Chelsea, but Rennes has reinvested that money and remains undefeated with seven remaining games in the Ligue 1 season.
The 40-year-old head coach, Julien Stephan, is an ambitious figure and has built a team that can point to the qualifiers of the elimination phase, with new Frenchman Edouard Camavinga and young Belgian striker Jeremy Doku to follow.
In many ways, last season’s history in the Champions League, by several factors, Gian Piero Gasperini’s wonderful artists are back after scoring 14 goals in their first 4 Serie A games of their season.
You can expect open and exciting matches in Group D when the Italians face Liverpool and Ajax, and the Reds may have too much attacking force in a shootout with them, they will need to succeed in the moment.
Yes, Timo Werner is gone, but the players he left are too in bad shape.
Julian Nagelsmann’s team would probably have expected a less difficult organization after failing in the semi-finals last season, and would not have sought to see Paris Saint-Germain again.
But with the team they have, Bundesliga leaders can be sure that a war with Manchester United for a position at the moment will take place to the end, when they receive the Premier League team on the last day.
There is no doubt that United has the individual talents to go far in the competition, but as Angelino of Leipzig has recently observed in a disturbing way, they can also be incredibly inconsistent.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will have fond memories of his team’s trip to Paris 19 months ago, but they don’t really seem in a position to worry PSG this time, and a poor result can start a very complicated group.
It has not yet been noticed that they are more likely to qualify than Leipzig because of their equipment, but it is quite close.
Emboldened by the success of the Europa League, Seville arrives at the table more sensible and in a decent group.
They will annoy Chelsea and themselves to the favorites opposed to Rennes and Krasnodar, which means the two most sensible, and therefore, there is no football in the Europa League this season, is likely.
Do they, though?
If a team handed over the Europa League trophy outside of Sevilla’s reach, Inter were perfectly willing to do so in August, just to move their lines.
They only entered the side festival last season because they had teamed up with Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, but they will need to get Borussia’s biggest, Moenchengladbach, this time.
In fact, Antonio Conte will desperately need his team to have an impact, and his paintings will possibly count on it.
Londoners and their exciting series of new faces can be more prepared for the Champions League than the National Chaos of the Premier League.
After all, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Thiago Silva are used to impressing in this scenario, and the open organization of Seville, Rennes and Krasnodar seems to be asking to take it.
It would be a deep sadness if Chelsea didn’t qualify for the ’16 circular, and Frank Lampard can’t really.
Jadon Sancho stayed, Erling Haaland is making progress as everyone had predicted and Dortmund have won an organization where they themselves can.
Lazio, Zenit and Club Brugge are the rival for the freshness of the Bundesliga, and with a transparent streak in this organization and an eighth-round draw, this one has the prospect of being a tournament that opens up to them.
How can we make Europe’s toughest and toughest competition even more unpleasant to face?
You throw Luis Suarez in the mix.
Atletico’s victory over Liverpool at Anfield last season was last hurrah for the Champions League as we knew it, and arguably the team that has suffered the most from the move to Lisbon’s barren parameters.
They have Bayern in their organization this time, which means they’ll probably be the team of the moment that everyone will need in the eighth round.
There is a possibility that the sound of Champions League music will cause a PTSD detail in Barca players when their minds date back to August 8-2, however, they will argue that Lionel Messi is emerging above that.
In fact, the perspective of Messi’s last dance as he tries to restore glory to a converter team would be as smart a plot as any other on Netflix, especially when you can sign up for Cristiano Ronaldo’s character at the organization stage.
The two aged icons will pass by, but neither seems to have an excellent ending.
Ronaldo’s two seasons in Turin have ended well with him breaking into the field after a loss of the last 16 years in this competition.
Of course he won some Serie A titles, but you don’t feel like that’s why he’s here, and the way european defeats to Ajax and Lyon seemed to hurt.
The Juve will need to pass at least a little more this time, and if they can play against one of the greats, like Barca in the organization, then that’s where Ronaldo comes to life.
Inter and Gladbach won’t have a hard time navigating, but it’s Zinedine Zidane in the Champions League and you expect the Real to do it.
The loss to Manchester City in the last 16 games last season led to him getting a bit out of the picture, it should be remembered that the Real led in this first leg in the overall football team in the face of a past collapse.
They will be as formidable as ever in this competition, and Zidane will want not even the last 4 to be enough yet.
The internal advances in Virgil van Dijk’s knee mean Liverpool will have to give in in a few blows from where he would have been, only because of the uncertainty created by a devastating injury.
They continue to go through an entertaining group, and in fact there is the argument that the Dutchman will miss them a little less in the Champions League where Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Fabinho can set foot on the ball.
Van Dijk will aim for the final stages of this festival to make his return, and his teammates have the quality to take him there.
If you’re not successful at first.
City’s deal with the Champions League is never a matter that can be called love, but it is transparent that they want it above all else, because now it represents their sense of legitimacy, even if they like UEFA.
So this is for Pep? Well, maybe.
He remains a trustworthy striker, but The City has that ability to overwhelm groups that cannot be controlled across the continent, and the semi-finals will be the goal they aspire to again, to continue failing.
It remains to be noted whether these unfortunate things in August will be as close as Neymar and Kylian Mbappé will get the Champions League trophy with a PSG shirt.
At least one of them, Mbappé thinks, is about to embark on his last attempt to win for the club for the first time, but they are just as lucky this time he interrupted the 2019/20 season.
His level of organization seems like a formality and, as the tournament progresses, there may be a sense of duty and destiny feeding his two top recognizable stars.
The headlines go back less than two months after pushing the trophy into the empty stands in Lisbon and, unsurprisingly, still look great.
Hansi Flick has assembled a team that is capable of doing everything, and that has impressively reduced the age profile of his adventure to recent successes.
There is a chance that they will only see the defense of this trophy as an extension of their first victory, and the Bavarians are the team to beat.
Who will win the Champions League? Give your opinion below
Sign up for Mirror Football here