One other season of the UEFA Champions League is upon us, one which teases the potential for shock even in a interval of dominance for a few of Europe’s high groups and gamers.
Whereas a well-known group of gamers are anticipated to compete for particular person and crew accolades within the continent’s high membership competitors, a interval of dominance for Actual Madrid and Manchester Metropolis may not be enough to keep a handful of teams at bay. Robust begins to the season for the likes of Barcelona, Arsenal and Liverpool make them reasonable contenders for the Champions League title, creating a brand new assortment of top-tier groups that would ship simply as a lot intrigue as the new format.
The early storylines of the 2024-25 season additionally led to a diversified record of predictions from the CBS Sports activities crew, who anticipate {that a} lengthy record of groups may trigger drama because the countdown begins to subsequent spring’s closing at Munich’s Allianz Area, teasing an entertaining season forward.
Earlier than the league part motion begins on Tuesday, listed below are a batch of predictions to kick off a brand new Champions League season.
Do not miss any of the Champions League. As all the time, you possibly can catch all of our protection throughout Paramount+, CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports Golazo Network all season lengthy.
Listed below are our knowledgeable picks for this matchday:
Skilled picks
Winners: If the betting markets are to be believed, this season’s Champions League must be a two horse race between the final two winners. That is sensible. Holders Actual Madrid have added one of many Champions League’s greatest performers in Kylian Mbappe. Manchester Metropolis stay pretty much as good as they have been. There are, nonetheless, just a few within the chasing pack who make for convincing contenders. Arsenal and Liverpool look to be exceptionally good groups whereas Bayern Munich have all of the expertise they want. What of Barcelona? In league play final season they have been placing up comparable superior metrics to Madrid they usually have begun this marketing campaign in explosive style. Keep match they usually may simply be the champion. — James Benge
Largest shock: Atalanta should not actually be a shock after successful the Europa League final season, however dropping Gianluca Scamacca to harm and Teun Koopmeiners to Juventus, this crew has potential. New items like Mateo Retegui are gelling nicely and Ademola Lookman remains to be on the membership, however that is all all the way down to the management of Gian Piero Gasperini. Atalanta will know what they should do to get the outcomes that they want and it will likely be sufficient to make the knockout levels of UCL. — Chuck Sales space
Largest disappointment: The massive expectation is that Actual Madrid, merely including Kylian Mbappe to their ranks, makes the Spanish giants even stronger and extra prone to efficiently defend their UCL title. Nevertheless, as their early season type has proven, it isn’t that easy — it would take time for this crew to gel below Carlo Ancelotti. Accidents and unavailability haven’t helped, however getting the likes of Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham to perform successfully and coexist is not going to cease being a problem for the Italian grasp tactician within the coming weeks and months. This yr’s Champions League could possibly be too quickly to anticipate Los Blancos to triumph on the continental stage. — Jonathan Johnson
Prime scorer: This season’s competitors will seemingly characteristic just a few of the sport’s greatest forwards duking it out for the highest scorer prize, however Manchester Metropolis’s Erling Haaland is nice sufficient to edge all of them out. His unvarnished potential to seek out the again of the web is his signature after two Golden Boot-winning seasons in England, and he is already created fairly the lead in his third Premier League season – he has 9 objectives in 4 video games, six greater than the subsequent closest participant. He has the good thing about a summer time of relaxation in comparison with most others, making him essentially the most cheap candidate to high the Champions League goalscoring charts by season’s finish. — Pardeep Cattry
Prime participant: After shifting from PSG to Actual Madrid in the summertime 2024 as a free agent, all of the expectations are on Actual Madrid and Kylian Mbappe, who struggled within the first video games performed to date. Nevertheless, there are a lot of causes to assume he would be the MVP of the season, as he solely provides extra expertise and successful mentality to a aspect that does not wrestle on this sense, after successful two Champions League titles within the final three years. Mbappe needs to make historical past at Actual Madrid, and meaning successful the Champions League once more. — Francesco Porzio
