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Alrite, here are my predictions on the fortnight of the matchday 1 openers.
Group A: PSG, City, Leipzig, Club Brugge.
Pretty straight forward here. PSG and City will top the group, I like PSG more than City and Club Brugge and Leipzig will fight for the Europa League spot. Even though life has started tough under Jesse Marsh they are more battled tested than the Belgian outfit.
Group B: Liverpool, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Porto.
Not quite as straight forward as group A. Both Liverpool and Atletico Madrid will be tough to beat at home, and the San Siro will be difficult as well. I'll take Liverpool to edge out for first, and Porto to bring up the rear.
Group C: Ajax, Dortmund, Sporting, Besiktas.
Interesting group we have here. Dortmund should finish in at least a top 2 spot, but of these teams Ajax is probably the most consistent of the bunch; they retained their manager after the rumor mill was chugging Erik Ten Haag out for vacancies in the summer. Dortmund going through a financial crunch had to sell Jadon Sancho, and while Sporting has had an excellent last 40 domestic games I think they'll find competition harder in Europe.
Group D: Real, Inter, Shakhtar, Sheriff Tiraspol.
Funny, 3 of the 4 teams were part of Group B in last years addition. And they may even be worse off then last year. Real won the group and might be better but the squad depth is a question, Inter after winning Serie A lost Antonio Conte and Lukaku to Chelsea, and Shakhtar is looking up at Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian League. Tiraspol is the first team from Moldova to make the group stage of the Champs League.
Group E: Bayern, Barcelona, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev.
Bayern should waltz to first in this group with all the trouble Barcelona is is. Speaking for the Catalan's, luckily they got Dynamo Kiev (again) and Benfica as the last 2 teams instead of United, Liverpool, PSG, and even Ajax otherwise they may not have even qualified for the Europa League! I'll take Benfica to edge out Kiev for 3rd because I'm more confident in them nabbing points against Barcelona than I am with Kiev.
Group F: United, Atalanta, Villarreal, Young Boys.
United should be the favorites, but if the hangover from last year lingers where if they just got 1 point from their final 2 games they would have qualified for the Champs League playoffs, but then made it all the way to the Europa League final before losing in the finals to Villarreal on penalties in the 11th round when De Gea shanked the kick to win it for the Yellow Submarine. I think Young Boys out of Switzerland is a notch below Atalanta and Villarreal.
Group G: Sevilla, Wolfsburg, Salzburg, Lille.
Easily the most wide-open and the group I'm most excited to watch. If Salzburg is to make a move to the knockout rounds this is definitely it. I think Sevilla should top the group, Wolfsburg has had a perfect start to the Bundesliga so far but have only played a transitioning Leipzig out of the top tier teams and had a 6 match losing streak (5 friendlies and a German cup defeat) before the Bundesliga season started. Lille actually won Ligue 1 last year by a point over PSG, but like Inter have gone through a lot of transition in selling off assets this summer.
Group H: Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit, Malmo.
Chelsea I think edges out Juventus. Zenit and Malmo could actually be 2 interesting games to watch. I don't think either side beats Chelsea or Juventus, so whoever wins the spoils in those 2 head to heads should at least still play European Football in February.
Semifinals:
Bayern over PSG.
City over Chelsea.
Finals:
Bayern over City. The Qatari countdown continues as PSG falls in the semifinals again, and City falls in the finals for a second straight year.
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