Who will win the Champions League this season? (2013 - 2014)
 

Another Champions League season starting today and can't wait. This is easily my favourite competition.

Predictions? Thoughts? Who do you think will win it?

Obviously, Bayern are top favourites this year according to the bookies. They played incredible football last year and have added quality to their squad with the signings of Goetze and Thiago Alcantara. With Pep Guardiola, they have also signed the biggest name there is on the coaching market. Yet no team has ever defended the Champions League crown so it will be tough. The start of the season wasn't spectacular in the Bundesliga. They haven't lost but it wasn't convincing either. And then the European SuperCup was just crazy.

Borussia Dortmund last year's finalist has lost Mario Goetze but signed three top players and if anything, they look a lot faster and more dangerous than last year. In my book, they are currently the best team in Europe and they have proven that with a 4-2 trashing of Bayern in the German SuperCup. Whether they can maintain this superb form for the whole year is questionable. If they do, they will win both the Bundesliga and the Champions League this season.

Of course, there's Barcelona and Real Madrid, both with new coaches and new top players such as Neymar and Bale. Somehow I don't believe it though. I see both German clubs ahead, once again. But once again, if they don't meet beforehand, I think there are big chances these 4 teams play the semi-finals.

I can't see any English team making the final. Chelski might have some chances but even with Mourinho, I don't think the squad is quite strong enough. Schuerrle and Eto'o just don't have the fire power to score against top sides I don't think. The midfield looks strong on paper but again, there's other teams including all the 4 above with better midfield.

Arsenal have signed Oezil and might just be together long enough now to have a say. Will end in the quarters though. The games against Dortmund will be a real test.

The only other two teams I see having a shot at it are Juventus and PSG. Because they come from what are perceived to be weaker leagues, they might just about have an underdog advantage. Juventus was solid last year already and so was PSG.

City and Napoli and United are the next level below.
And then Schalke and Donetsk are the last contenders for the quarters depending on the draws.

And that's my preliminary analysis. I will place £20 on Dortmund to win it this year and will hope Bayern becomes the first ever team to defend it. Either way, it will be a damn exciting season.

Bayern won it last year, Chelsea won it the year before.

I ain't predicting anything this year lol

and that's how it goes...what a start :D
First goal of the competition - David Alaba, Bayern Muenchen!

http://storage0.dms.mpinteractiv.ro/...=281&width=500

Ahh...Juergen Klopp! Such a legend!!!

Ozil......

with a little help from Rambo!

Is it karma, is it luck? Me I just don't give a B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayeeeern :D

Man City were truly schooled last night. It wasn't like this was a mismatch either. Man City have a ludicrously talented squad but they just aren't working for one another. They should be thoroughly embarrassed.

I can't see past Bayern winning it again this time around. Real Madrid might have a sniff but they have a knack of crumbling late on.

How awesome was this baby from Leverkusen yesterday...kid is on the pitch 3 minutes and then has the balls to go and score it that way when the skipper and the main striker were shouting cross cross cross. Football needs more kiddos like this. What a goal...Edit: forgot to mention it was 92nd minute and Leverkusen was drawing at home...

http://i.imgur.com/TvqpqbA.gif

I'm hoping ManU and Chelsea lose this week :D

Had you won against Napoli, none of this would have happened. Tough luck for Arsenal to meet Bayern again really. We are unstoppable at the moment and it will be very difficult to prevent us from becoming the first ever team to defend the Champions League [and probably achieve two consecutive trebles!]

As much as I agree with you, I don't see them defending it for the first time.....

:) no worries there...I am fine with you disagreeing.

Can't see past Real Madrid winning it this year. They're pretty unstoppable just now.

Hell of a win just now, long way to go though.

Well yeah - but Schalke is a train-wreck of a team. God knows how they're 4th in Germany, I doubt they will finish in the top 4, I'd even bet money on that. Having said that, I wouldn't mind a Real vs. Bayern final. It never happened at that stage....long overdue :D

Bayern is playing Schalke right now.... 4-0 in the 28th minute already. Just saying...

Schalke won't be in the CL Final. ;)

They surely won't. Bayern has a good chance of getting there though. I'd even go that far to say they'll either defend it or PSG or Real will take the crown this season.

PSG are currently scoring goals for Fun :D

It is a bit silly though what is going on in a couple of leagues around Europe.
Other than England, there's 1, max 2 teams that can win the league which makes the contest quite boring.

In England there might be 3 or 4, at the same time, none of these teams is quite strong enough at the moment to compete with the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern or even PSG.

Not too long ago, there were thoughts around creating a European Super League. What would you think about that? I have my doubts, but to be honest, it's no fun watching Bayern play in the Bundesliga knowing that they will trash their opponents each time. Ok - maybe Dortmund can be a contender for the cups but for the league they lack the breadth in the team. I guess the same holds true about PSG&Monaco and about Real & Barca....

I say this all the time, but you lot are supporting the wrong kind of "football".
You need to follow real football. Australian Rules.

And you must also support the greatest football club on the planet...The Mighty Port Adelaide Football Club.

Anyways, sorry for hijacking your thread...continue on with your soccer (I say soccer 'cos that is what it is) discussion :D

No worries. Triple vodka tonics involved?

Robben's a brilliant player but a dreadful cheat...

Second one was a penalty though. We missed it anyhow. Arsenal played very well. Didn't deserve to go through, obviously, but Bayern will have to up their game a little bit in the next stage. Entertaining football though with some tremendous action...

He epitomises the attitude of a lot of the top Champions League players. He'd go down in his mother's box if he thought he'd get a goal out of it.

Everything you need to know about the chap:

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Arjen_Robben

Barcelona, Atletico, PSG and Bayern so far. Looking very strong!
Real, Chelsea, Olympiakos and Dortmund going through next week- looking a little less strong.

Obviously, I'd want Piraeus in the next round but as long as we avoid Real and Barca I am happy. Looking forward to the quarters though!

Barcelona were there for the taking last night. Man City were wasteful and lacked a killer instinct. I can see them getting dumped out easily by PSG, Bayern, Real Madrid and maybe even Chelsea if they're on their game.

Barcelona won't win it this season based on that performance. I think Bayern will walk all over them again.....

Well, United have surprised me tonight.....

Still a little lucky but glad they are through. Looks like awesome quarter finals. Every single team other than PSG has at least reached the final before which is fabulous. Obviously, United are not in best shape and Dortmund has been hit and miss all season, but the rest - wohooow! Bring it on, top class football!

Wohooow! Always happy when Bayern gets a chance to wipe the floor with United! Bring it on Semi-final #4 in the last 5 years :D

Well, I didn't see that coming. More than a few reasons why Bayern should feel a little less confident going into the second leg. Just wish Welbeck hadn't tried to be so clever at the end of the first half. Only the away goal that really put a downer on the night but hey ho, United have faced one of their sternest tests and come out of it better than anyone would have predicted. Bring on the second leg! :D

Don't get me wrong, I did expect to cruise past United so I am disappointed with the result. Yet seeing the press and United fans celebrating a HOME draw with less than 30% possession like a success is simply bewildering. In almost 20 years of being a Bayern fan, I can't recall a situation like that or a game in which Bayern was outplayed like this AT HOME. Yes, we lost games at home and drew games at home, but with yesterday's performance, I would have crawled under a blanket and would have not opened my mouth, despite the draw.

Then again, Chelsea won the Champions League like that 2 years ago so who knows, I guess anything is possible. Am just happy my team never went for the park the bus in front of the goal tactic. That would actually feel worse than losing...

Edit: Maybe what I wrote there is a bit too critical. Given the form that United has displayed in the league this is definitely a good result and should definitely be a reason for more optimism in the second leg. At the same time, objectively speaking, United is in a worse position than they were before this leg. Right now - they are out. Yet somehow, they seem to have drawn some psychological advantage out of that performance. I guess Bayern had an uninspired evening whereas United defended really well and got bookings for two key-players. Fair enough. I will be in a plane during the 2nd leg which is very annoying. I had hoped that we put this tie behind us after the first leg so I don't need to be nervous during my flight....

I think it is a measure of how far United have fallen that fans take a positive view on a home score draw but given the season we've had to endure, you start to look for as many positives as you can. Given that United, with only 24% of the ball, still carved out the better chances, I'll take a repeat performance in the second leg if it means not getting played off the park by a technically superior team.

Fair enough. I can't possibly see that repeating itself in the next leg. The attention that is given to that one Wellbeck chance still baffles me. First of all - errors like that are very unlikely, even for Boateng. Next week, Dante will be back which will add a layer of security and I just can't see that happen too often. Second of all - it's Manuel Neuer we are talking about. Probably the best goalie in the world. Probably even better in 1-to-1. HE IS HUGE. And he wasn't going down. I recall a much stronger United side going desperate with him holding onto every ball in the semifinals of 2009. It's not like Wellback had to score that one. Far from it. Yes, he could have scored. But I think it was a good attempt and with that mammoth of a human that is Neuer right in front of you, you can't just expect him to score. You can't simply expect that from any striker actually. This is why Neuer is the World Keeper of the Year and not some clown.

Anyhow - coming back to the second leg...I am 100% sure Guardiola will send the following line-up:

-------Neuer-------
Alaba--Boateng--Dante--Rafinha
----Kroos----Lahm-----
Ribery--Mueller--Robben
------Mandzukic-------

Since there was hardly anything coming through United's midfield, I think this will be a much more dangerous side...with the options of Goetze, Shaqiri and Pizarro all coming on for Mueller, Mandzukic, Ribery or Robben.
At first I was a little nervous knowing that all three of our usual nr 6 are out (Thiago, Schweinsteger and Martinez)...but I think that the red card might be a blessing in disguise. Despite scoring a lot of goals lately, Schweinsteiger wasn't in the sharpest of form.

I doubt United's teamsheet will be identical to last night's. Rafael will probably be back in at right-back, which could hurt us rather than help as he's ok going forwards but has a rubbish cross and is nigh on useless as a defender. It's why he gets booked so often, he's just far too rash in his challenges and Ribery will skin him alive. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets sent off against Bayern again.

As for the whole Neuer bromance you've got going on there, I can't agree. United were looking at him after he put in that unbeatable shift against us when we played Schalke (I think) in the CL a few years back and then he followed that up with a string of bizarrely poor performances which put United right off him. He's not the best keeper in my eyes and in any case, even if he was, you still always fancy the forward to score in one-on-ones. The Welbeck chance has so much emphasis placed on it because it was the clearest opportunity either team had to score all night (including the goals that were scored which were arguably harder efforts to convert). He has so much pace, all he had to do was feint to shoot and knock it past him and he'd have had an open goal to tap into. He allowed himself to be closed down too quickly and should have either taken the shot on sooner or gone past him. His disallowed goal was slightly dubious as well and I've seen those sorts of incidents go unpunished by the ref many times.

The team I expect Moyes to field will probably look something like this:

De Gea
Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Buttner
Valencia, Carrick, Kagawa, Januzaj
Rooney
Welbeck

Personally, I'd never give Fellaini another chance to prove how utterly useless he is. 6ft 4in ad he only won 14% of his aerial challenges. Most of those headers won went to opposition players as well I think. He's pish!

Yes - it was against Schalke in 2011, not 2009. And the reason ManU was 'put off' was because he had already signed for Bayern. String of bizarrely poor performances? :-) Hilarious. Right after that game, he basically announced he is moving to Munich. That was the semi-final of the Champions League when ManU went on to lose against Barcelona. Next season he was in Bayern's goal, losing the final to Chelsea.

Again - have you seen Manuel Neuer in real life? What you are saying is factually right but 1 on 1 against Neuer is a horror scenario for any striker and in most cases the striker does actually NOT score. I can't back it up right now :P but will do (once I remember what the damn statistics site is that shows those figures....)

He did look very insecure in defensive midfield. Very interesting knowing how strong he was at Everton...but there you go.

Anyhow - gutted I am not seeing the second leg. Will be a great game....

Bayern lost its first game of the season today - 1-0 to Augsburg - while United won 4-0 against Newcastle. Interesting constelation going into the second leg. Certainly unexpected. But it does seem like Bayern form-curve is pointing in the wrong direction. Then again, we had three 18 year old play today - even so - the attack was missing the cutting edge so I am a bit concerned. Really gutted I am missing this.....

United scored some cracking goals but to put your mind at ease, Mata got two and he's cup-tied so can't play in the CL, Hernandez got one and is unlikely to figure ahead of Welbeck or Rooney (who will be fit no matter what tosh the United camp come out with before the game), and Mata created Januzaj's goal and Moyes generally seems reluctant to play him in really big games unless he has to despite the lad's unbelievable ability.

The whole United team was a lot different to the one that will figure in the second leg although it says a lot that with all our struggles this season performance-wise, one of our most promising displays comes when we have so many 'first choice' players unavailable. Perhaps Moyes should consider persevering with the likes of Hernandez et al., in place of Van Persie even when fit. Too many egos and complaining when things go wrong when you've got a host of great players chomping at the bit to be given a chance to prove themselves.

I'd happily see United sell Van Persie in the summer and give Hernandez the chance he deserves to really excel as a first choice striker.