Based on a summary of the opinions of columnists and football observers in Europe, the majority predict that the strongest candidate to win the Champions League will remain Bayern Munich. It’s hard to stop them. They are strong on all fronts. Even though in its history only Real Madrid has been able to win successively, Bayern Munich remains the favorite to win.
Bayern Munich will probably decline a bit this season but are still the strongest and most balanced between their lines compared to other teams. Although defender Thiago Silva moved on to a free transfer to Chelsea, Bayern have already replaced Joshua Kimmich who is increasingly mature. Their veterans Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller are also at their peak plus the dangerous signing of Manchester City, Leroy Sane.
Liverpool seem to have passed the peak of their achievements in the last two seasons by winning the 2019 Champions League and the Premier League this year. Even though many of the candidates are able to regain control of the Champions League this season Pool has not shown his prowess like two seasons ago.
Especially now that Van Dijk is having a long injury. Liverpool are even reportedly approaching Ozan Kabak, a defender from Turkish nationality Schalke, as a replacement for Van Dijk in the new year. This shows that Van Dijk is seriously injured. Even though last season failed in the last 16, Liverpool is still the strongest team from England, unlike Citizen (Manchester City), which seems to have something wrong with Pep who is always sluggish in the Champions League so that he is still not the best candidate to be able to excel this season.
Could Real Madrid be the strongest again after two seasons not qualifying for the last 16? Real Madrid, which was able to win 3 times in a row in 2016, 2017 and 2018, lost its momentum after Cristiano Ronaldo left for Juventus in 2018. Ronaldo’s abandonment made Real Madrid difficult in the Champions League.
Hazard, who was staying up late to replace him, who was able to score 110 goals at Chelsea for 7 seasons, was only able to contribute one goal and only made 22 appearances while at Real Madrid. A prolonged injury is a major factor for Hazard not being able to maximize it at Real Madrid. Coach Zidane was also criticized, Real Madrid’s management reportedly prepared a replacement for Zidane if Real Madrid’s achievements continued to decline, with former Southampton and Tottenham Spur coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Barcelona after being slaughtered by Bayern Munich last season with 8 goals seems to have begun to shake its dominance at European level. At the beginning of the season, Messi was not interested in playing for Barca just because of contract duress, so Messi continued this season at Barca. Luis Suarez has been dumped by new coach Ronald Koeman and moved to Atletico Madrid.
Previously Ronald Koeman at Everton was less successful and made many blunders by ditching Romelu Lukaku who was then the top scorer and now shining at Inter by replacing him with a player totaling 80 million pounds, whose performance is far below Lukaku. It seems that Barca will find it difficult to do well under Koeman’s command.
Even though Juventus is strengthened by Cristiano Ronaldo, it seems that it is still difficult to compete to win the Champions League. Juventus is currently in the midst of rejuvenating its players, it is possible that they are waiting even longer to win even though they have waited 24 years. Another Italian team Inter Milan led by Antonio Conte is more focused domestically to try to win the Italian League rather than pursuing achievements in European level competitions. Meanwhile Lazio do not have a strong enough player depth to excel in both domestic and European competitions. Lazio will have difficulty fighting in the two competitions.
Who is the dark horse team this season?
Like last season where the semifinals were filled by the strong team of Bayern Munich, PSG, and two dark horses from Lyon and RB Leipzig. This season there is also the possibility that there will be another dark horse that could reach the semifinals and even to the final.
Sevilla have won the Europa League 4x in the last seven years and are strong candidates for dark horses. Sevilla is used to competing at European League level and becoming champions.
This season, under the leadership of Julen Lopetegui, they are ready to excel. Lack of Sevilla, they don’t have a deadly attacking squad. Sevilla’s achievements so far are still underestimated when compared to the achievements of other Spanish teams (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid).
Borrusia Dortmund is likely to qualify for the top in the group stage and advance to be a dark horse this season. The weakness is in a less consistent defense. If you can improve the defense then the possibility to advance to the semifinals is open.
Is it possible for RB Leipzig to become a dark horse again this season after qualifying for the semifinals last season? RB Leipzig, which this season is in a group, in Group H, with PSG and Manchester United must pass the test from the group first before becoming candidates for dark horses.
The possibility of winning Group H later is PSG, even though PSG lost the first match against MU, then the second winner will be contested between MU and Leipzig. RB Leipzig’s strength has diminished with the move of top scorer Timo Werner to Chelsea. The strength between RB Leipzig and MU can be said to be balanced, it will be very interesting to see who will qualify alongside PSG.
Atletico Madrid is also likely to be a dark horse this season. Last season they took the toll of defending champion Liverpool and this season is getting stronger with the joining of Luis Suarez from Barcelona who immediately set up and became a goal machine. Atletico Madrid have long been a force to be reckoned with on the Champions League stage, even in 2014 and 2016 they were close to winning because they reached the final, and this season is likely to make another surprise.
Chelsea can also be a dark horse, they are investing heavily this season for the long term by buying young players who are in the top rates category such as Timo Werner, Kai Havert, Ben Chilwell and Hakim Ziyech as well as experienced players like Thiago Silva and goalkeeper Eduard Mendy. . Earlier this season it seemed that Chelsea’s weaknesses were in defense but with Mendy and Silva starting to play there was an increase in strength in defense even Mendy began to show his class as the best goalkeeping candidate in the Premier League. As time goes by, the Chelsea team which is filled with many new players will be more compact and dangerous.
The French team represented by PSG, Marseille and Rennes are unlikely to talk much this season. Even though PSG has many star players like Mbappe and Neymar, many observers doubt that they will perform like last season to reach the final.
This season the Champions League is more difficult to predict with the increase in the Covid-19 factor which can change the strength of a team which is usually only dominated by injuries and accumulated yellow / red cards. However, based on the strength and depth of the players, many pundits agree that the strongest candidates to win this season are Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
ASL
