With the Champions League quarter-finals fast approaching, three English clubs are set to fight it out amongst the eight teams left in the competition as they all look for the roadmap to the final.
How Far Will English Clubs Go in the Champions League?
Manchester City
Manchester City are still fighting on all fronts this season. However, they’ve reached the part of the competition where it usually goes wrong for them.
This City team has evolved into a complete unit. Pep Guardiola has created a well-developed squad, showing dominance in all competitions. With just a bit of luck, Manchester city could become champions of Europe for the first time in their history. However, it wouldn’t be fair to rule Borussia Dortmund out.
At 20 years old, Erling Haaland is already a serious goalscorer. It’s almost certain Haaland will play a key role if Dortmund is to cause City any trouble.
With Haaland heavily linked to Manchester City, there is a chance the young striker will be playing for City next season. That makes it the perfect time to audition live in front of Pep Guardiola. Although Haaland’s quality will likely shine through, as it does nearly every time, he steps on a football pitch, it seems this time around Manchester City will be too strong for Dortmund.
City’s previous Champions League exits have come by losing to Liverpool, Tottenham and more recently Lyon. With that in mind, it’s hard to see Guardiola’s side getting the better of Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final.
Chelsea
Perhaps Chelsea has the golden draw for the quarter-final. Not only do they avoid PSG, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, but they play Porto in the next stage.
Porto cannot be written off however; they did knock Juventus out of the competition after all. However, this Thomas Tuchel side is a different level to Frank Lampard’s slightly unpredictable team. Tuchel has revolutionised Chelsea, the Blues have become incredibly disciplined, meaning they’re no longer leaking goals.
Tuchel also made it to the final last year with PSG, so the German clearly has the experience to lead Chelsea to the latter stages of the Champions League.
Chelsea’s only downside, which may stop them from winning the competition, is that they don’t score many goals. Chelsea doesn’t have an outright goalscorer, like Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandoski, or a Haaland type.
Liverpool
Liverpool face Real Madrid in a tough quarter-final matchup. On one hand, neither have had brilliant domestic seasons, yet it seems as though Real Madrid are starting to hit form now.
Domestic form aside, clubs like Liverpool and Real Madrid do have an upper hand over the likes of PSG and Manchester City. These clubs have a history of success, which gives them a huge influence in Europe. Real Madrid is in a league of their own with 13 champions league titles, while Liverpool has six.
However, this time around without the presence of fans, stadiums as iconic as Anfield don’t really have the same nostalgic feel as they usually do under the lights on a European night. Therefore, it’s hard to see either club upping their performances to make it to the final.
Who Will Win the Champions League?
Tuchel’s Chelsea are in a great position to make it to the final, with either Liverpool or Real Madrid to get through, should they beat Porto.
Once again, Bayern Munich must also be favourites. Although this will come at the expense of PSG and Manchester City who are in a race to win the competition for the first time.
Not only do Bayern Munich have a history of winning European competitions, Bayern are the club to have won it most recently.
In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic meant the German champions only won the competition at the end of August. With only a small preseason, Bayern Munich has retained a similar level of form to last season. This means Hans Flick has a ready-made group of players who know what it takes to win the Champions League.
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