Yes, its back, the big one – the tournament
they all want to win. CollinsBeans provides you with all you need to know and a
handy cut out and keep guide to this season’s Champions League. What are you waiting
for? Come in and see...
In this ‘post Olympics isn’t sport great?’
era are we excited that the big money glamour of the Champions League is back?
Yes, we are! The Champions League is still
the ultimate competition in club football and while the group stages can throw
up a few dull encounters, it’s hard not to get excited by some of the bigger
ties. There’s something quite nice about hearing that pre-match anthem, knowing
you’re about to watch the world’s best players compete.
The other great thing about the Champions
League is that there are genuinely a whole handful of teams that could feasibly
win it. Barcelona and Real Madrid are obviously favourites, but Chelsea showed
anything is possible last year, and it wasn’t even that long ago that
Porto went all the way (James Platt)
Champion’s
League group stage: best of the best competing or boring money spinning procession
for the big clubs?
There are many that yearn for a return to the
good old, helter skelter randomness of the knock out days of the European Cup,
senses dulled by years of monotonous group stage encounters that we’ve all seen
before. The Champions League very much subscribes to the view that you can
never have too much of a good thing and that the group stage allows for more ‘quality’
encounters.
Whether you like the group stage often comes
down to a debate of unpredictability vs. seeing the best. Given six games you
are unlikely to see a big side stuff things up, with multiple chances for them
to get out of jail, although try asking Manchester United how that worked out
last year. However too many, they want to see the best take on the best and the
group stages gives you far more chance of seeing heavyweight show downs in the
post Christmas knock out rounds.
So your love for the group stage very much
depends on when you go the movies, do you go for the plot twists and
originality or do you go for the big name actors delivering big time performances?
Or put it another way, we all love a Cardiff or a Millwall getting to the FA
Cup Final...until the game starts and we wish it were Manchester United.
(Matthew Snelling).
Last season’s triumph for Chelsea was like
a movie script – how will the Champs do in the sequel?
Well we all know sequels don’t usually live
up to the original (Home Alone 2 aside) and it’s hard to see Chelsea repeating
last year’s amazing feat. It was an unexpected triumph based on will power,
desire and a decent helping of good fortune, and it’s just very difficult to
imagine it happening again.
In fact, Chelsea will do quite well to get
out of what is a tricky group, featuring the Italian champions Juventus and
Shakhtar Donestk – a good team and a particularly awkward away tie. You would
expect them to go through however, and after that it will all come down the
draw for the knockout rounds. The sensible bet would probably be a quarter
final exit. (JP)
Patriotically
speaking, how strong will the other British challenge be?
Chelsea’s roller coaster ride through Europe actually
masked a pretty poor performance from England’s finest but there should be a
much more consolidated assault on the big prize this time round. For all the
talk about the loss of Robin Van Persie, Arsenal actually look a better team all
round in that they are now not over reliant on one player to get them out of a
hole. The lack of a star name breeds collective responsibility. Once again Manchester
United have paid of their man in UEFA to give them a group that would be called
‘straight forward’ at worst and you have to think they will be fired up after
last season’s embarrassing early exit. Their lack of a quality central midfield
could still be their undoing however.
The defending champions from the Bridge have
been discussed above whilst all eyes will be on Manchester City. Last year’s
group stage appearance seemed like something of a scouting mission before the
real thing and this time round much bigger and better things will be expected.
In theory they should be kicking on but their lack of recent euro history meant
a poor seeding and a group from hell. If they can get out of the group of all domestic
champions then that should set them up nicely for a long(ish) run.
Oh and finally we would be remiss if we didn’t
mention Celtic...so there we go, we have now. What with missing out on their
six or seven encounters they usually get with their old friends down the road,
Europe is where the real excitement that just can’t be gleaned from a tip to
Ross County will be at. (MS)
Real or Barca?
Tough one to call, and maybe this will be the
year they finally both meet in the final. You just know that Jose Mourinho is
absolutely desperate to win this, as much for himself as anything else. But it
hasn’t been a great start for Real this season, whereas Barca have set off like
a train.
The jury is obviously still out on new boss
Tito Vilanova, but he’s got a fairly decent squad to work with hasn’t he? If he
can develop a Plan B (that’s an alternative strategy rather than a singer
turned budget actor – has anyone seen that trailer for The Sweeney...) for when
teams defend deep and stifle Lionel Messi, then it’s hard to see them being
stopped. (JP)
Just
like the Daily Mail, Michel Platini has a particular affection for Eastern
Europeans…anyone from behind the old iron curtain going to surprise?
The
problem with globalisation (Ok, one of the many) is that there are very little
surprises left in football. No longer can a team emerge from the East, shrouded
in the mists of Communism but we are still waiting really for a big break
through from this part of the world. Zenit and Shaktar are the usual suspects
with some exciting new signings and proven Europa League wining pedigree but
for a less heralded name, Spartak Moscow could be worth a cheeky outside punt,
where Brazilian defensive midfielder Romulu is quite a coup and could be an
unheralded signing of the summer. (MS)
We always like to keep things ‘a little
bit different’, give us a name or two to look out for in one of the teams that
doesn’t come from the Premier League, Serie A or La Liga?
Well, first off you’ve got to mention last
year’s beaten finalists Bayern Munich, who will surely go far again. They’ve
now lost of couple of Champions League finals in recent years and will clearly
want to overcome that final hurdle. Another German side, Borussia Dortmund,
took the Bundesliga by storm last year but getting out of Group D would be an
achievement in itself.
Over in the East, there’s more than one team
with a bit of cash to splash, and you don’t go spending loads of dough just to
do well in your domestic league. Zenit St Petersburg have forked out a shed
load on Hulk and Alex Witsel and they’re in one of the easier groups so should
progress, although it’s hard to see them going much further than the last 16.
And on the subject of cash, Paris
Saint-Germain have some rather wealthy backers these days and have lured some
seriously good players to the French capital, including Zlatan Ibrahimovic and
Thiago Silva PSG are likely to qualify from Group A with Porto and once the
knockout rounds start, who knows what could happen. Manager Carlo Ancelotti has
a pretty decent pedigree in this competition as well. (JP)
In a
tournament dripping with ‘new money’ which of the big spenders looks best
placed to challenge the old older?
This really should have been the summer to be
talking about Malaga and their journey on opening up La Liga from its closed
shop duopoly at the top. Last season’s steady growth, shrewd signings and
Champions League qualification boded well and should have been the building
blocks for growth...however, come the opening match day of Europe’s premier
club competition and the Spanish side, stripped of their key assets, heavily in
debt and with little additions look set to seriously struggle. No-one quite
knows why the Qatari investors have decided to sell up on their dream so
quickly but it’s a shame that a team people had very high hopes for have been
flogged off with the family silver.
On the opposite end of the spectrum the story
has all been about Paris St Germain this summer and it’s hard to ignore any
team that is now able to boast Thiago Silva at the back and the main man Zlatan
up top. Early signs are that Champions League specialist Carlo Ancelotti is
struggling to form his highly skilled and expensive toys into a coherent
system, but should they start to click, would you want to face them? (MS)
For the uninformed out there what can you
tell us about FC Nordsjælland?
Good question... Well they are from Denmark
and this is their Champions League debut. The young coach in charge of Nordsjælland,
Kasper Hjulmand, is apparently an enthusiast of Barcelona and bases his
strategy on the Catalan style. And one of their young stars is Andreas Laudrup,
son of legend and current Swansea City coach, Michael.
That’s about as much as we can help you. (JP)
In the
absence of Lyon (TM Richard Key’s), who will the proverbial dark horses be?
Sadly Lyon’s absence means Sky can’t roll out
their usual cliché about them being an unknown who we might do well to look out
for (they were doing that even when they were getting to semi finals) but a
team that Jamie Redknapp might want to do a little revision on is Lille. They
didn’t make a huge impact last season following their title win but they are a
well drilled and capable outfit, who should ruffle some more illustrious opponents
and be served well by their experiences last year, that is, even if they don’t
have Joe Cole anymore. (MS)
CollinsBeans has five whole English Pounds
(not sure we want to be dabbling in Euro’s at the moment) to put on the winner
– who should we go for?
Money is tight in these difficult economic
times and everyone wants to spend wisely. CollinsBeans is no exception, and so
while there are some decent bets out there, this precious fiver has to go on
Barcelona. They are still the foremost team in Europe with the best players,
and they will be hungry for success after a disappointing season last time out.
For the more carefree, resource-heavy gambler
a flutter on Manchester United at 8-1, Bayern Munich at 12-1 or even PSG at
16-1 offers slightly superior potential returns. (JP)
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