By Miguel Badimon

As another football season is well underway, Miguel Badimon takes a look at who the favourites are to lift the most prestigious trophy of all at club level:

PSG

Let’s start with the defending champions and this year’s heavy favourites: PSG. They have started off this season with a 4-0 win over Atalanta and, who knows, this could be the start of their journey into lifting the prestigious trophy once again.  A very important piece of the PSG XI last season was Donnarumma, but after the Italian footballer was sold to Manchester City, the club now finds itself in desperate need of a quality shot stopper if they want to be European champions once more. And besides, if they can’t stop the opponent’s goals, they will need to score more than them if they want to win, which leads me onto my next point – the attack. PSG is renowned for scoring avalanches of goals per match but now they are faced with a problem. Two big sources of goals for the team were Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele, and so having them both injured is another challenge they are going to have to overcome.

But there is one more thing that not everyone has considered: the mentality. How do you think they feel after losing the Club World Cup 3-0 to Chelsea – a team that was not even qualified for this European tournament last year! Will they feel downtrodden and obtain a losing mentality, or was that just a bump in the road they needed to overcome?

LIVERPOOL

Liverpool were a brilliant team last season and this season they really boosted their team with many new signings including Florian Wirtz, Jeremy Frimpong, Alexander Isak, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitike while also giving a place in the team to 16-year-old academy wonderkid Rio Nguomoha. These great additions to the team are quality players and makes the team more exciting to watch, good value for money if you ask me. After Diogo Jota sadly passed away and the club sold Darwin Nunez to Al Hilal, Hugo Ekitike is the best striker in the team however, with Luis Diaz gone to Bayern Munchen how will Liverpool play down the left? Is Gakpo a good enough player to replace him? 

BARCELONA

Barcelona’s young team terrorised many opponents in the Champions League last season, just to suffer a very narrow defeat against Inter Milan last season that ended 6-7 on aggregate in the semi-finals, but will Barca’s two new main transfers this year make the difference? Barca was in a difficult position the previous season in terms of keepers – Inaki Pena was injured, as was Marc Andre ter Stegen, so they had to bring the Szczesny out of retirement. But now that Joan Garcia has joined the team, not only is that a crucial box ticked off the list, but he has also been performing exceedingly well. On top of that, Barcelona has been on the hunt for Marcus Rashford for a long time, and now they finally have him. So far, he has showcased a crucial goalscoring talent, securing a 2-1 win in a good match against Newcastle by scoring a header and a breathtaking strike from outside the box. 

                  This team has a great midfield, and they move around the ball like no other. Their tiki taka is incredible to watch and with two powerhouses down the wings (Lamine Yamal and Raphinha) as well as Marcus Rashford, Barcelona could definitely win the whole thing – we’ll have to wait and see.

ARSENAL

Arsenal are another team who have really rejuvenated their squad with new signings, having seemingly solved last year’s problems. One of these problems is that last season they didn’t have a proper striker, however, with new signing Victor Gyokeres leading their line, they should have no problem getting the ball in the net. Assisting him in scoring are two young speedy new signings down the wings: Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze, and not to mention Bukayo Saka who will help for not only rotation but also for scoring, like the others. Another signing is Martin Zubimendi, a dynamic player in the midfield brought in from Real Sociedad – like Mikel Merino was one season ago.

MANCHESTER CITY

After taking Donnarumma from PSG, they find themselves in a brilliant position to win it all, but if one problem was to be picked out it would be their defence. They are known to be very sloppy at times while trying to stop the opponents attacks and one mistake can mean one goal – and the good teams observe, act, and score. On the contrary, their attack is incredible. With Haaland as their clinical striker and Doku, Savino, Foden and Bernardo feeding balls into the box, is there anyone this dream team can’t score against?

BAYERN MUNICH

Harry Kane is a great player. Bayern Munich is a great team. Can they go all the way? Well, with Kane scoring and Olise and Luis Diaz weaving down the wings, their attack is more than optimal. They also have an intimidating defence with new signing Tah and Upamecano, two strong giants. Manuel Neuer is a great keeper, but is he becoming a bit rusty with age? Well, everyone may have a different opinion but if one thing is for sure, the German keeper is nowhere near his prime. But still, with the way they magically move the ball, they are definite favourites.

REAL MADRID

Real Madrid are the other Spanish favourites, as they not only got to the quarter-finals last year, but they also have a great team, won the competition two years back and are the team with the most Champions Leagues in football history – a stunning 15! Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Mbappe’s pace and skills are a big thing to look out for this season as that front three have broken many back lines and probably will this year in the tournament. They have one of the world’s best keepers Thibaut Courtois and if Xabi Alonso can solidify their defence and midfield, they could go the whole way.

INTER MILAN

Inter Milan are extremely capable of winning the Champion’s League this season. They are a team that play defensive and score off counter attacks. They are tough to play against and difficult to get past. They have many defenders and are solid at the back like no other team. They have been like this all year and if they keep it up, they will likely concede less goals and their attack will get the goals on the leaderboard. This is very realistic as their joint strikers (Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram) are highly clinical and top-class players in front of goal.

However, after an embarrassing 5-0 defeat against PSG in the final last season, that memory could come back to haunt them. An interesting thing about them is that they are the oldest team in the competition this year, but will that cause them problems further ahead?

These are the clear favourites to win the Champion’s League this season. Who do you think will win?