Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 1023. (Read 141752 times)

Managers having a system that they are stuck with will always end up being worse and worse over time and needs to figure out better systems that improves on their old one. It doesn't have to be a major one, look at Pep, what he made Barcelona played in 2009 period when they did amazingly isn't "too far" from current City, but obviously he realized he doesn't have a Messi there, and then focused on the sides differently and played from within, not from outside.

This allowed them to pass the ball as usual from his style, but more directly and not more quick, that changed things like crazy for him. Look at Mourinho on the other hand, he still plays his teams like he did 15 years ago, that worked once, but won't work now.

Honestly I'm not putting Barcelona among top 4 favourites for the Champions League title.    I would rather Arsenal than Barcelona among them. Because I see Arsenal more promising depending on their general performance in the recent times. The only problem is that Arsenal are a very young team and they don't have many experienced players now.

On the other hand Barcelona have been disappointing in the Champions League for 2 seasons. Now finally they should be finishing the group stage as leader comfortably thanks to a lucky draw.

However I need to see their effort against one of big title contenders to evaluate their chance for the title better.

Napoli managed to win away for their first matchday in the Champions League against Braga with a final score of 1-2, with the victory also bringing Napoli to the top of the group C standings now. But it seems, Napoli will soon be in second place, because for the second matchday later Napoli will play against Real Madrid. Although indeed, Napoli will play at home, but it seems that the factor of playing at home is also not a guarantee for Napoli to win. Because after all, we realize that Real Madrid is the king in this Champion League, so maybe Real Madrid will beat Napoli, although any result can still happen.

Also regarding Manchester United, I think the next matchday will be a great opportunity for Manchester United to get their first points in the Champions League. Because after all, even though Manchester United lost in their first match against Bayern Munich, but in fact Manchester United looked great in that match too. Therefore, I personally believe that on the second matchday later, Manchester United will manage to win to beat Galatasaray, because this match will also be played at Old Trafford. Therefore, the match will be the right moment for Manchester United to win at home and to get their first three points in the Champions League.

Finally, we will see a big match in Group C and perhaps it could be said that these two teams are quite evenly matched if we look at their performance since last season. But there are times when Napoli will have quite a difficult time because their opponent is Real Madrid, which is a team full of history in the Champions League. Even so, Real Madrid should not underestimate Napoli and I hope both teams will give attractive performances in the match. I also agree that Real Madrid will still be the favorite to win and it seems that Napoli will have to try hard not to lose too much.

Napoli are not playing well enough to beat Real Madrid at the moment. Although Real also played badly yesterday against Atletico Madrid. I think Napoli will lose. Probably after this match the leader in the group will be determined, because both clubs have three points in the standings.

I don’t quite agree with your assessment, the reason why Atletico Madrid got away with the win against Madrid easily was because of Ancelotti weak starting eleven and he also admitted to that mistake. Since the end of last season it was clear that both Toni Kroos and Luka Modric can not start a match together because age has actually caught up with them. Ancelotti also knew this and corrected his mistakes since the start of the season. But one thing about Ancelotti is he always twerk his formation whenever he is playing against either Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and this has not helped him get points. He should have started Joselu for either of Kroos and Modric. This will have provided more freedom for Bellingham.

If he should revert back to this formation it will be a bit hard for Napoli to hit Madrid on counter and score those long balls into the net. Osihmen will definitely have a hard time against Rudiger because he is one hell of a defender, it wasn’t just his day against Morata but that doesn’t mean Napoli can have there way also.



I also think Man city are the clear favourites to win this base on the current performance, Barcelona have been poor in the European competitions even if they play wonderfully in the league. They are in an easy group so I will give it to them that they will qualify to the last 16s but after then is a prediction I will wait for till after winter breaks. There clubs that usually start well and go off in the second half of the season and Barca is one of those clubs

Napoli its not having his best time, so i dont know how much they can do against the most Champions League team of the history.

Im gonna look the group of Manchester United, its gonna be a good battle for the third and second place between all the teams, after the results from first round.

Before the Napoli vs Real Madrid match takes place, Real Madrid has two La Liga matches scheduled against Las Palmas and Girona. I don't think Real Madrid will have any trouble winning both games, but Ancelotti will likely have to be able to rotate players enough to not get tired against Napoli.

It is very likely that Real Madrid will again get the services of Vinicius in this tough match so it can be hoped that this will improve their attacking game. Napoli are playing at home and might be able to make things difficult for Real Madrid, but things will be different considering the big match is still quite far away. In the last match Real Madrid had difficulty beating Union Berlin, so that might affect their probability of winning against Napoli.

Napoli just need to focus in making so many crossing to beat real madrid. Real madrid has no good defenders that can winning the duel in the air. Osimhen is tall and he can use that as his advantage over real madrid same like when morata scored two goals against madrid.
Atletico madrid has been giving the right example about how to destroy real madrid. Napoli just needs to learn from the result between real madrid vs atletico madrid. Im sure napoli can beat madrid if bellingham will not get its fortune.

Napoli's former manager Luciano Spalletti's departure from the club after he had a successful season with the club of which they win the Italian Serie A has really affected the shape of performance of the club as they've not been able to match the same results of last season at this stage of the season and I think it'll be very difficult for them to play against a club like Real Madrid.
Though the Spanish giants were defeated yesterday at Atletico Madrid, I think they possess a squad that'll be difficult for Napoli to handle but that doesn't mean that Napoli still can't pull a surprise in that game

If this match occurred last season, I agree that this match would be called a big match. Napoli's performance this season is very different from last season, they did not appear consistent in Serie A which resulted in losing a lot of points. Napoli was only able to draw in their last match in Serie A, this match should have been won by Napoli considering the strength of the two teams.
Real Madrid also just lost in La Liga, but Real Madrid's performance is much more consistent than Napoli. Real Madrid will be the leading team in this game despite its status as a visiting team, based on previous meetings Real Madrid also managed to dominate over Napoli.

There will be a big match for week 2 between Napoli vs Real Madrid and both teams has been met on 2017 twice at that time Real Madrid can win all of the matches and after Spaletti left Napoli still unable to find their shape because in Serie A they still unable to wins 3 times streak and in champion league too Napoli only win with narrow scores against weak team Braga and if we compared to the conditions between these teams i think Real Madrid clearly better than Napoli although they just lose last week from Atletico Madrid but basically Real Madrid performance is more stable than Napoli and regarding this match although Napoli will playing at their home ground but i feel like Real Madrid will be the winner of this match

Yes and I think the 2 clbs you mentioned are the biggest favorites to win the title this season. Moreover, they are big clubs in their respective leagues. I will comment more on Real Madrid, they are a Champions League regular, and they still hold the record for the most Champions League titles in existence. I have to say this, that they are the club that has the best mentality that I have seen so far, especially if they are in the Champions League.
They are fearsome, and it's not uncommon for them to surprise you.


Aside from them, Manchester City have everything it takes to win the Champions League for a second time, from their backline to their frontline. That's thanks to Pep's success in building the foundation of this club.

Hehe, you just play the safe side here  
It's impossible to do this kind of percentage, but I say something like 90% of chances of one team of your list to be the champion: Real, City, Barcelona or Bayer

I don't see any other teams with a better chance of winning the title so far, watching the national championships and the first match of the UCL...
But it's always interesting to see the less favored teams to reach the semi-final or at least to have some chance to be the champion.
This year Napoli could go far again, and Atletico Madrid could surprise us as well, this is just my opinion, but I hope some small teams beat the big ones  

It would also be interesting for Barcelona to make it far, it's been eight years since they've reached a final, and this time it finally looks like the team is better prepared and well built to return to the top

Just to conclude, if I have to make a bet on only one team I would bet on City again

Dembele's return to PSG from Barcelona is not long, Dembele may have played a maximum of two to three matches for PSG. Meanwhile, there is a fear in his mind that he may not be able to stay at PSG for a long time, that's why he is trying to change clubs. A player who goes to PSG and when he leaves PSG after one to two seasons, that player shares his experience at PSG. So far I have not seen any player saying anything good about PSG after joining another club from PSG. PSG may not give players the respect they deserve which is why no good quality players stay at their club. If this continues then at some point this club will be star void and they will not be able to take any quality players into their club even if they want to.

Barcelona has not been tested in facing the strong team. It's now staying at the easy group which is easy for barcelona to finish at the first place as well as real madrid. Im still doubting about barcelona to be one of candidate to win the current season.
Im thinking about barcelona may able only to reach the quarter/semi final. I don't see a chance for barcelona to go to the final. Its opponent will be very strong team during the play off stage.
Manchester city is still become the strongest candidate to defend its trophy again. City was the perfect club. It has good attacker and defenders. The most balanced team so far in UCL.
I have no doubt city may become the strongest team in UCL right now. Bayern was almost losing against manchester united which was in bad form.

Last season, Manchester City managed to win the European Champions League trophy and have the status of defending champions this season. Their performance in the EPL is considered perfect with no defeats or draws, they deserve to be placed in first place. Even though Bayern Munich and Barcelona are unbeaten, they have a record of draws, while Real Madrid has just been beaten by city rivals Atletico Madrid. If you look at these statistics, City is more worthy of being placed first in the favorites list, however, this is only a statistic and will not change the course of the match in the future.

In the first match in the group phase, all 4 clubs managed to win. Barcelona scored more goals because it met an easier team Antwerp. I think the chances of these clubs are still the same, even though they have different results and records in their respective Domestic Leagues. What is clear is that City, Madrid, Bayern and Barcelona have the potential to become group winners and qualify for the last 16.

All the teams you listed have a good chance of winning the tournament, but at this point it’s too early to make any predictions. Closer to the final, a lot can change, teams can lose shape, team leaders can get injured and the playoffs can sometimes surprise us, since these are only two games in which sometimes unexpected results can happen.

City are looking very good so far and I have no doubt that Guardiola can get very close to the final again, but I'm not sure if they can repeat the success of last season. I'll just try to guess that City or Real will become champions. 

The group stage hasn't started well for Inter I'm afraid. Real Sociedad made really big difficulties for them. At least Inter didn't lose maybe but they could have played better. But I guess there won't still be a big problem for Inter during the group stage. They should be able to qualify from the group anyway and probably as the leader.

Benfica are technically another favourite to advance to the next stage but they started horrible. That red card ruined the plans and Salzburg benefited from it great. Right now the group is in really interesting situation so it might end pretty close in points at the end as well.

I can directly exclude Real Madrid from being a really strong contender to win the Champions League during this year after the shameful performance of yesterday night where they were beaten 3-1 by Atletico Madrid.In here there is nothing wrong to lose to Atletico Madrid but the way they conceded the goals,3 headers shows that they lack a lot in defense to be playing good football against the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munchen.

Barcelona is a good team but still they are not in top form yet although lately they have done really well as they turned things around from 0-2 to 3-2 in their latest game in La Liga.