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The Champions League is officially over and dusted off for 2020.
It’s been a chaotic year for Europe’s premier competition, with the 2019/20 climax taking place at the end of a single-game knockout tournament in Lisbon, simply proving the tip of the iceberg.
And after all the delays inflicted on the competition last season, European football fans have barely been able to contain their enthusiasm for the messy 2020/21 group stage match schedule.
Champions League 2020/21
However, after three months of lawless comings and goings across the continent, we can finally take a breath and look back and see what is already shaping up to be a Champions League to remember.
Plus, the culmination of the group stage always gives you a good idea of who the top contenders might be with potential suitors halved from 32 to 16.
And the competition has already been tough with players like Manchester United, Ajax and Inter Milan taking the bullet, while Real Madrid were among those who barely reached the second round.
No Champions League until 2021
However, we can now put the remaining 16 teams under the microscope while we await both the draw for the knockout rounds and the resumption of competition, generally, in the new year.
But we know that soccer fans, ourselves included, can’t go two whole months without getting a small amount of their Champions League fix, and we have the solution for that.
That’s because we have taken on the unenviable task of qualifying the 16 clubs that have qualified for the knockout stages, from the least likely to win the Champions League to the most likely.
Champions League Club Classification
If you think that sounds like a controversy waiting to happen then you would be correct, so buckle up and see where your club appears in our Champions League power rankings:
16. Lazio
Despite the European Golden Boot holder leading his line, just two group stage victories and ranking seventh in Serie A suggest the Romans could be cannon fodder in the knockout stages.
15. FC Porto
Credit to the Portuguese team for holding their own in a group with Manchester City, but third place in the Primeira Liga and facing a brutal second-round draw barely screams “potential European champions”.
14. Seville
Julen Lopetegui’s men must have a nosebleed without Europa League football and it is only because of their six wins in the competition over the last 14 years that we rate them as the top outsiders.
13. Borussia Monchengladbach
It’s hard to see a world where the seventh Bundesliga team wins the Champions League, although the ranking of a group that includes Real Madrid and Inter Milan shows that they love to upset the apple cart.
12. Atalanta
Despite all their troubles in Serie A, Atalanta is once again outgrowing their weight in Europe, even clinching a historic victory at Anfield, so they stand a better chance than many to secure a Leicester-like fairy tale.
11. Barcelona
Barcelona are off to a horrible start in the Ronald Koeman era and their recent Champions League history has been crippling at best, so it’s only Lionel Messi who lifts them close to the top ten.
10. Borussia Dortmund
If BVB can maintain their array of young talents for three years, then maybe they’ll move up our rankings, but it’s hard to see Lucien Favre lifting them past the semi-finals even with Erling Braut Haaland.
9. RB Leipzig
For us, the last club that we can genuinely imagine winning ‘Big Ears’ this year because if any team has the potential to cause a seismic surprise, it is the intrepid and exciting thoroughbred Julian Nagelsmann.
8. Chelsea
Dark horses? Maybe, but Frank Lampard’s team is still a team that finds itself in the main competition in Europe, so the jury is out on this newly established team when they face players like Bayern and Liverpool.
7. Real Madrid
Despite reaching the round of 16 because of the skin of their teeth, Real Madrid proved their worth with the victory over Gladbach and it would be foolish to rule out a Zinedine Zidane team with an unlimited pedigree in the Champions League.
6. Juventus
Only a team that includes the best player in the Champions League can be ruled out; One wonders if Andrea Pirlo’s team’s mixed form in Serie A could influence his continental efforts.
5. Atletico Madrid
I would be forgiven for thinking that I lost the plot after Atlético’s difficult moment in the groups, but their La Liga start, recent European history and the spirit of Anfield make me think they will be contenders to say the least.
4. Paris Saint-Germain
Last year’s finalists are not as impenetrable as they were in 2019/20, but getting out of the ‘Group of Death’ is no easy feat, while Kylian Mbappé and Neymar are arguably Europe’s most fearsome front line.
3. Manchester City
Despite his shaky start at the national level, Pep Guardiola can be expected to throw down the kitchen sink in the Champions League and do everything he can to end his well-documented quarter-final curse.
The former Barcelona manager could hardly be blamed for following in the footsteps of Liverpool’s European approaches in 2004/05 and 2006/07, provided they reach the top four in the league.
2. Liverpool
Make no mistake about it – this Liverpool team is one of the best the Premier League has seen and is the favorite to retain its title, so expect them to pick up speed when the knockout rounds begin.
When their disabled list shrinks and they start to gain momentum, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them channel the spirit that saw them reach two Champions League finals in the past three seasons.
1. Bayern Munich
Who else? The reigning European champions came close to going two years without even drawing a match in the Champions League, making their way to ‘Big Ears’ in a historically emphatic way.
This time around a few more cracks are starting to show in his armor, but dominating a group that includes Atlético de Madrid shows that Hansi Flick’s men are well worth their value as favorites.
The more you think about it, the more teams could go all the way this season and let’s not forget that Real is the only club to have retained the Champions League since 1992.
Therefore, despite how invincible Bayern has been over the 18 months, we cannot forget that the competition that we all love so much is also beautiful in its unpredictability, and we already want it back.
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