The knockout stage of the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League season begins on Tuesday, when a number of of Europe’s main groups — together with final yr’s winner Manchester City and report 14-time titlist Real Madrid — play the first leg of their two-match, total-goals-wins spherical of 16 collection.
As normal, there aren’t any scarcity of questions heading into the enterprise finish of soccer’s most vital membership competitors, which concludes June 1 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Four of the greatest are beneath.
Can Manchester City repeat as champs?
Although Pep Guardiola’s facet gained all six of their matches in the group stage, the holders have not been completely convincing throughout their title protection thus far. This is not fairly the similar workforce that steamrolled to a historic “treble” of trophies final yr, when the membership’s long-coveted first European trophy was accompanied by home honors in each the Premier League and FA Cup.
City sits second in the present Prem standings. Star striker Erling Haaland missed virtually two months of the marketing campaign with a foot damage.
But Haaland is again now, and the Sky Blues acquired a positive spherical of 16 opponent in Denmark’s FC Copenhagen, which is able to go to the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday to open the home-and-home. Somewhat counter-intuitively, there’s additionally much less strain on Guardiola this time round, what with City having lastly gotten over the hump in the Champions League final spring.
In addition to nonetheless boasting in all probability the deepest and most proficient roster in the sport, that is now a confirmed, grizzled, battle-hardened workforce. So whereas we have not seen the better of the Cityzens thus far, they’re the bookies’ consensus favourite for pretty apparent causes. Time will inform if Man City can win for the second time working, however guess on this a lot: they will not relinquish the silverware with out a battle.
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Will Real Madrid add a fifteenth crown?
If any workforce is aware of the way to flip it on in do-or-die Champions League matches, it is Real Madrid. Easily the most embellished membership on the continent — with 14 European titles, Los Blancos have twice as many as Italy’s AC Milan, the subsequent most profitable workforce — Real continues to be at the tail-end of its maybe its best period: They’ve gained the Champions League 5 occasions since 2014.
The most up-to-date of these got here two years in the past. Real’s squad has modified loads since then, with the likes of longtime striker Karim Benzema and midfield rock Casemiro having left and sensible younger midfielder Jude Bellingham — acquired final summer time from Borussia Dortmund — rising as the new face of the membership. But mainstays such as captain Nacho Fernandez, maestro Luka Modrić, winger Vinícius Júnior and midfielders Toni Kroos and Federico Valverde stay, offering each expertise and stability.
Real’s championship pedigree will probably be examined on Tuesday in Germany, when the Spaniards go to RB Leipzig. The guests are the favorites, but they’ve additionally struggled mightily to remain wholesome recently. Nacho and Viní Jr. simply returned from damage, and Bellingham will miss at the least the first leg due to a sprained ankle. Still, this membership all the time appears to discover a means on this competitors. City and Bayern Munich might have higher odds, however it could shock no one if Real Madrid is standing on the podium as soon as once more when it is all stated and carried out.
Is this PSG’s Last Dance with Kylian Mbappé?
We nonetheless do not actually know if these subsequent few months really characterize Kylian Mbappé’s swan tune with Paris Saint-Germain, the French celebrity/World Cup winner’s hometown membership. Every week after Mbappé (as soon as once more) seemed destined to leave the Parc des Princes at season’s finish for longtime suitor Real Madrid, the deal (as soon as once more) seems to have fallen aside.
Whether Mbappé stays or goes this summer time, this a lot is evident: PSG is working out of probabilities to win the title its rich Qatari house owners have been obsessive about since shopping for the membership and spending them into the contender class greater than a decade in the past. The closest the Parisians acquired was in pandemic-shortened 2020, when Mbappé, Neymar & Co. gained a pair of single-elimination contests however misplaced the ultimate to Bayern Munich.
Neymar left final summer time. Lionel Messi has come and gone since then, too. Now the strain is on Mbappé alone. And regardless of a commanding lead atop Ligue 1, it is honest to marvel if this PSG facet is able to making even a deep run, not to mention going all the means. Still, whereas the first impediment is critical — Real Sociedad of Spain, which visits the City of Lights on Wednesday, is not any pushover — it is not a behemoth like Bayern, which ended PSG’s marketing campaign in the spherical of 16 a yr in the past.
Can Mbappé do it by himself this yr? With 30 objectives in 29 matches in 2023-24 already, perhaps. He’s the greatest participant in the world, together with City’s Haaland. What a narrative that may be.
More possible, although, is one other disappointing end that leaves Mbappé edging ever nearer to the exit, and PSG questioning when — or even when — it’ll ever be adequate to seize Europe’s final prize.
Which different contenders may win the trophy?
With Harry Kane main the line, Bayern has maybe an much more potent menace up prime than they did when Robert Lewandowski led them to their final Champions League triumph 4 years in the past. (Bayern opens its knockout spherical slate Wednesday towards Lazio in Rome.)
After an extended absence from the competitors, Arsenal has confirmed that they are the actual deal, too. The Gunners would possibly also have a higher likelihood of profitable the Champions League than the Prem, during which they path first place Liverpool by simply two factors and actually cannot afford to not win each outing between now till May. Arsenal kicks off the spherical of 16 subsequent week versus Porto.
Then there’s Inter Milan, final yr’s runner-up. Inter is having one other wonderful season, although the Nerazzurri must outlast a robust foe in Atlético Madrid in its first knockout spherical collection after ending second in its group.
Dortmund or the Netherlands‘ PSV Eindhoven in all probability cannot win all of it. But having been drawn towards one another, one will advance to the quarterfinals. The similar goes for one more former European champ, rebuilding Barcelona, and Serie A holders Napoli. That ought to assist make for an interesting final eight, although loads of video games will probably be performed earlier than then.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports. Before becoming a member of FOX Sports in 2021, he was a employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has lined United States males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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