Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 545. (Read 141809 times)

Don't you think some teams will make a difference in the Champions League this season?

I know that Real Madrid and Manchester City will have the best and highest rating based on their past record, but if we consider current form, I think other teams also need to be put into consideration because teams like Arsenal, Inter Milan, and Barcelona might have an amazing season which can lead them to the Champions League final; But as it stands now, I will also give Real Madrid and Manchester City to be the favorites of the competition so far but I am not underrating other teams because I am expecting some of them to eliminate Madid or City.

Moreover, now that there is De Bruyne, of course Manchester City is getting stronger to beat Copenhagen because in terms of the quality of performance, Manchester City is much better than Copenhagen and I think Manchester City can beat Copenhagen easily in the first and second legs. And I'm very curious about Man City's next opponent in the quarter-finals because I think we will see increasingly difficult competition in this match but I'm sure Man City can still advance to reach the final round like last season.

Hmm... maybe you're right, but let's check in the return game - I think that the odds there will be exactly the same as I assumed. As for the games in the group, they don’t mean anything at all, in most groups everything is clear right away and the favorites don’t worry about their place in the 1/8. Even in the death group F, what can be said based on its results? That Dortmund is stronger than PSG and Milan?
I think the odds does not reflect the strength of Copenhagen, but the fact that City will not strain itself - like last year with Leipzig (1-1, and then 7-0).

Manchester City are real superior than Copenhagen though the latter can prove to be stubborn especially as we’ve seen them in the group stages against Manchester United amd Bayern Munich. But we mustn’t fail to compare these clubs to the strength of Manchester City, I don't even think Bayern Munich would match City currently talk more of Copenhagen.

 Manchester City who’re dreadful in  the group stage especially with KDB being absent; now imagine how the squad will be with KDB back and other players back on the pitch. Copenhagen aren’t a team to match City and they should get ready to bow out in this stage. Cause the City I know, with Pep Guardiola I know won't allow Copenhagen to kick them out of the UCL in the round of 16 stage, that would be a big stain to his good records.

Although indeed, there are still other elite teams such as PSG, Bayern Munich, Inter, Arsenal, Barcelona but yes, at this moment of course we will judge that Real Madrid and Manchester City remain the best title candidates compared to other elite teams . Because anyway, about Bayern Munich also seems not entirely promising because ya, the competition in the Bundesliga seems to be enough to make Bayern Munich get complicated pressure . Therefore, Real Madrid and Manchester City remain the favorites because these two teams have a good winning mentality to keep going further.

Actually in this case it is said that PSG is lucky that Sociedad does not have too much experience in the Champions League because it is indeed their debut in the Champions League but in terms of performance they cannot be underestimated because after all we know that they are better for the group phase even when compared to PSG in this case.
Experience can be a favourable situation for PSG but still Sociedad is a dark horse whose movements sometimes cannot be predicted because they could pounce on PSG and make them unable to qualify for the quarter-final phase for the third time in 3 consecutive seasons.

What is clear in this case is that all opportunities must be taken, in terms of strength and experience PSG is still superior but in terms of teamwork Sociedad is also not a bad club in this regard.

Despite lucky or not, Real Sociedad success managed top standings position in group phase and Inter Milan have to finished on second standings position, I don't sure with Real Sociedad qualify to the next round depend on lucky because in their group only Inter Milan is strong opponent teams. Actually most lucky teams qualify to 16 round is PSG because has the same points with AC Milan but help with goals productivities.
PSG is not strong team in Champion League, they losses from Newcastle United, AC Milan and losses compete with Dortmund to finish on first standings position. Real Sociedad will be difficult opponent team for PSG on 16 round although many people favorite with PSG has large opportunity qualify to quarter final round.

This season wouldn't be different from the other because a vision is getting clearer in every phase of the UEFA Champions League. We have favorites for the league, they're merely two top clubs, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich, their performance have proven to be the best club. Not lucky stars will be retraced to an average team because elite clubs are competitive enough to trace the energetic run of their clubs without challenges. I'm keeping my sights on Manchester City and Real Madrid, because they're the only contenders for the UEFA Champions league title this current season.

Pep Guardiola is professional coach and he knows what he has to do to maintain the physicality of his players, such as using these players only in important matches against big clubs and if he only plays against small clubs, Guardiola will usually use Haaland or De Bruyne in the second half when there is left. just few minutes so it not too risky to use the player with little time.
We don't need to worry, in the Champions League, there are many elite clubs that have great coaches, even though injuries are always nightmare, a coach always tries to ensure the quality of the players performance.
You don't need to worry, in final round we will see De Bruyne appear with Haaland to fight for the CL title.
Only now it seems that Guardiola has to be more careful in managing his players because there are still many obstacles that must be faced and if guardiola cannot look after the players performance it will have bad consequences.

In the Champions League, playing well is not enough, they have to have a winning mentality. Different from the domestic league, you play well, you lead the standings. So far, there are quite a lot of underdog teams who have played well but are not favored to win and in fact are not champions. However, on the other hand, a team that has a winning mentality has a big chance of becoming a winner.

The Champions League is not like the domestic league where every season you will definitely play against the same team twice home away. But in the Champions League, it is very possible that each team can only meet once in each season, even up to 4 new seasons, depending on the pot they get. So the Champions League really needs a team with an above average mentality.

Real Sociedad luck is because they are in group D, you could say group D is one of the easiest compared to the other groups. In fact, Inter Milan deserved more to win the group, but they lost in terms of the number of goals and conceded, and Benfica and Salzburg were not comparable opponents, making it easier for Sociedad to advance to the round of 16. I predict Sociedad progress will be stopped in the round of 16 by PSG, the fact that Luis Enrique has often faced them will be a plus point, where Enrique also has better squad depth. On the other hand, even though PSG are not the favorites in the UCL, they seem to be able to beat Sociedad.

The reason that La Liga is more competitive than Ligue 1 makes sense, but in many ways Sociedad is still far behind PSG. It would be quite safe to bet on PSG winning, even though Sociedad is showing different performances between the UCL and La Liga. The priority scale of each club is very different, but balancing the teams in two elite European competitions is the main priority. Whatever it is, PSG is considered to still have a chance of continuing to advance to the quarter-finals, without ruling out the possibility that Sociedad will create a surprise because PSG is playing badly. But on paper, betting on Sociedad is very risky and should be considered carefully.

We know and really understand that PSG escaped the group phase because of luck, yes they were lucky to escape the hellish group. Their defeats to Newcastle and Milan have made us all doubt whether Enrique will be able to bring his fleet to speak much going forward. However, as I said at the start, Sociedad can trouble PSG, but they need a miracle to overthrow a team like PSG in the round of 16. Sociedad reputation in La Liga can be used as a reference, although not completely. I think their chances of advancing to the UCL quarter-finals are very low.

I don't think that there has ever been a game in the knockout rounds of the Champions League where the bookies gave odds to the team playing away from home lower than 1.1. Everyone who saw how Copenhagen played against Bayern Munich at home, knows that this isn't going to be 0-5 for Manchester City without any effort. The 1.32 rather reflects the possibility that this game has a chance to end in a draw. I don't believe Manchester City will be beaten, but a draw can always happen. I guess that is what the bookies take into account here and the performances from the group stage.

Real Sociedad was into group D with Inter Milan, Salzburg and Benfica this indeed is not hard group but at that time they are not the favorite team to qualify for the next round because at the beginning of competition people were more likely to predict Inter Milan and Benfica as the teams who will be qualified to round of 16 because previously these teams can able to performing well that Inter Milan is the finalist and Benfica can reach to the quarterfinal but surprisingly Sociedad can appears as strong contender into group D and they were qualified as group champion which this is very impressive and Sociedad even only conceded 2 goals from 6 matches

Sociedad indeed gets hard opponent PSG and from the experience and squad conditions indeed PSG much stronger compared to them and most likely Sociedad journey probably will be ended here and for the first leg PSG as a host and i am sure they will pushing to gets the winning results and if possible win with big scores because if PSG can able to do that then their journey will be more easy for second leg however Sociedad achievement are equal to 2003/2004 when at that time they also can successfully to qualified to round of 16 too

What makes them look more prepared is that they will be facing Paris Saint Germain. Indeed Paris Saint Germain are the best club in Ligue 1, but when it comes to the Champions League I think they are on the same level as Real Sociedad, yes a little better than Real Sociedad.
Real Sociedad must take advantage of this, yes because Paris Saint Germain themselves always have problems and this season they also have problems. Maybe they managed to escape from the group that is considered the toughest this season. But they also did not qualify very convincingly because there clubs can beat each other.
I'm not sure about Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League, either I feel the same way every time I see them. There are many factors that they show so that doubt comes to my mind.

Kevin De Bruyne is a key player for Manchester city a d his performance is in no doubts very helpful to Manchester city and on several occasions has helped them secured wins but it still doesn't make him a reason why Manchester city will not thrive, he's an added advantage and we should see it as such and not like the team wouldn't do any better if he's not with them for any reason.

Fee months back he spent injured the team was still able to get some good results which kept them at an advantage ahead of many other team premier league and in the champions league, they were able to get pass the group stage in the UCL while Kevin De Bruyne was absent and was injured so it's still very much possible the team would win the UCL if they are opportune to even while he's not with the, Manchester city have got this form that makes them collectively dependent so they don't have to depend totally on a particular player. City may be able to win home games but I'm not really certain about their away games mind you this is champions league, an elite league and not a domestic league.

Despite the huge difference in the class of teams, the quotes for the first game are quite interesting:

9,80 - 5,00 - 1,32

I see a clear hint here that the bookmakers are not sure that City will try to win this game or try at all. If this was a "necessary" game for City they would be listed as 1.05-1.1.
There is a great temptation to bet on Copenhagen or Copenhagen double chance (the odds compensate for the risk), but it seems to me more profitable to wait for the result of the first game and if it is successful (Copenhagen win or draw) then bet on City in the second game.

There is no guarantee that even though Copenhagen plays the first leg at home, they will be able to win against Manchester City and on the contrary, Copenhagen will try their best not to concede many goals. They need to do that if they want to achieve a miracle in the second leg which will be held at Manchester City's home ground later and even though we already know who will advance to the quarter-finals, of course surprises are still a mystery and we definitely want that too.

What would happen if the match between two teams of different levels had to be resolved through extra time or a penalty shootout, wouldn't that be an added value to the competition and here everyone would definitely be even more tense seeing the extraordinary performance of the two teams. Manchester city is sure to win but I expected something more from Copenhagen.

Exactly, though they went through some levels of difficulty with the group stage even as they played with Kevin De Bruyne and some other names who was absent during the group stage.
Copenhagen are stubborn, young, brilliant and vibrant, I watched em against Manchester United and the same against Bayern Munich who they gave some levels of difficulty before they finally won.
Manchester City comes above them though with form and next month when they meet you'll see how and why Manchester City are superiors to them.

Hopefully Kevin De Bruyne stays fit enough. He'll be considered a Manchester City legend whenever he finally decides to leave the club for good. Saudi clubs are after him.

Real Sociedad was lucky to only meet Inter as the only strong team in the group stage, but if Sociedad were in group F then I am sure Sociedad would not be able to win the group stage or could even be eliminated from the Champions League.

Not all teams that are undefeated in the group stage and become group winners will succeed in qualifying for the quarter-finals if they have strong opponents in the round of 16. PSG is a strong team and will not be easy to beat, so it would be very unfair if you ignore PSG's chances without any consideration. Real Sociedad certainly has a chance to beat PSG, but PSG's defense is not as weak as you mean.

By February the knock out stage for the UCL will kick off and for some teams, it'll be an easy slide through regardless of the notion of the strongest teams being the ones able to scale into this stage. City and Copenhagen would go against each other, and wé all know who is the favorite in that match, it's very much clear that City would be the survivors.

 Their key men are back and set to run and definitely that's enough charge to weigh down Copenhagen. Yes, in their home ground, they may try to put up a battle but I'm certain that City will be capable to overturn them. They're way ahead of them in capacity and ability too. As always, the round of 16 will have as much fun as there can be in it and it's greatly anticipated. Preparations and games would definitely be intense too.