Another UEFA Champions League season gets going this week with the beginning of the league phase as Paris Saint-Germain bid to join the tiny band of clubs to have won the competition three years running.
PSG successfully defended their title last season when they beat Arsenal on penalties in Budapest, retaining the trophy they won for the first time in their history 12 months earlier.
Luis Enrique’s side have already secured their status as one of the competition’s greatest teams by winning it back-to-back, something only Real Madrid had previously achieved since the inception of the modern Champions League in 1992.
Winning three in a row would be on another level entirely. Real did exactly that under Zinedine Zidane between 2016 and 2018, The only other teams to manage such a feat are Ajax (1971-73) and Bayern Munich (1974-76), while Madrid also won the first five editions of the European Cup from 1956 to 1960.
“Our objectives are clear. I want to win important trophies and there are none more important than the Champions League,” said Luis Enrique, who also led Barcelona to glory in 2015.
The back-to-back titles for the French giants have coincided with the introduction of the new Champions League format, with 36 teams in the league phase now playing eight games against eight different opponents.
The Parisians struggled in the league phase in each of the last two campaigns, finishing outside the top eight and having to come through the additional play-off round to make the last 16.
Tough draws were partly responsible for that, and PSG will face some familiar opponents this time in Manchester City, Barcelona and Aston Villa.
With each passing year, the prospect of a team other than one of Europe’s super clubs winning the Champions League seems more remote.
– Arsenal to take next step? –
The Premier League’s financial strength means all of its representatives can be expected to feature prominently, with Arsenal chief among them.
Over the last three years, the Gunners have lost in the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and then the final. There is therefore a logical next step for Mikel Arteta’s side,
Arsenal topped the league phase last season with a perfect record. They have a tough start this time away to Napoli.
There are five English clubs involved, with Manchester City and Liverpool joined by the returning Manchester United and Villa.
Bayern Munich are formidable, while Jose Mourinho has returned to Real Madrid charged with the task of leading them back to continental glory. Barcelona are itching to get their hands on the trophy again.
It is hard to see beyond one of those clubs, although Inter Milan could have a say and Atletico Madrid will be desperate to reach a final to be held in their stadium.
– Debutants –
The only club outside Spain, England, Germany, Italy and France to have won the Champions League in the last 30 years remains Mourinho’s Porto in 2004.
Plenty of new names will add freshness to the competition, including Como, who finished fourth in Serie A last season under Cesc Fabregas to qualify at the expense of AC Milan and Juventus.
Viking Stavanger are in the Champions League proper for the first time after winning a first Norwegian title in 34 years.
Sabah start with a trip to Old Trafford after winning a first Azerbaijani title and coming through four qualifying ties. Their manager, Valdas Dambrauskas, got into coaching with the money he made appearing on the Lithuanian version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’.
“Since I was 12, when I realised I will not be a professional player, I knew I wanted to be a football coach,” he said in an interview with Flashscore.
“I cannot guess what would have happened without this game, but I believe I would have found a way to achieve my dream.”
Sabah might not qualify for the next stage — although compatriots Qarabag did that last season — but just being in the league phase is worth almost 20 million euros ($23.2m) at a minimum, significant sums for clubs from lesser leagues.
The Champions League winners pocket around 90 million euros in prize money, before adding millions more, notably from television — it is understood PSG earned around 150 million euros for each of their last two victories.
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