Champions League 2021: Czech representative absent, favorites and surprises

The new year of the millionaire Champions League starts with evening matches in groups, in which only one Czech representative will be represented. Former star player Ondřej Lingr and his new team Feyenoord host Celtic at home.

Don’t look for other Czechs in the competition tonight – only a day later, on Wednesday, another ex-Slavic David Jurásek will start in the jersey of Benfica Lisbon.

Another year of the competition, from which millions of euros flow into club coffers and which gives European teams the greatest prestige, will be without a Czech team. Viktoria Plzeň played last time in the Champions League and finished last in the group with Barcelona, ​​Bayern and Inter Milan with zero points and a score of 5:24.

This year, Sparta, the Czech champion, crashed in a nerve-wracking drama at Letná against Copenhagen. By the way, the team that eliminated Sparta is considered by bookmakers to be the biggest outsider in the competition. For example, Fortuna posted the highest odds of 1:1000 for Copenhagen to win the big cup (just like CZ Belgrade).

Pep Guardiola’s team is in charge of the defense. Manchester United reigns supreme at the start of the Premier League, has yet to drop a single point and is also the biggest favorite for the Champions League.

These include Bayern with Harry Kane, Arsenal or “out of obligation” and Real Madrid, which is already without Benzema, but has always been able to play in the Champions League. He also holds the record for winning this trophy, having won it nine times.

“Only two of the usual favorites go into the new season with a fully established, experienced squad: Manchester City and Real Madrid. One of them will probably win, or at least be in the final. Many others, such as Bayern or PSG, are in the phase of rebirth, for example, Arsenal will probably get used to the Champions League a little at first after a few years of break. Last time, the Italians surprised, this year it can be done by someone else from the wider top, for example Atlético or Benfica,” predicts Luděk Mádl, one of the creators of the football podcast Seznam Práv Nosiči vody. His new episode on Tuesday, which comes out at 12 o’clock, is also devoted to the start of the Champions League.

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After twenty years, Newcastle, doped up with Arab money, returns to the competition. He’s a bit unlucky: the lottery sent him to the toughest group F, in which he will also meet PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.

Already in the basic groups, fans can look forward to Manchester United’s matches with Bayern. Arsenal will again face, for example, the frequent winner of the Europa League, Sevilla.

But the BBC server also notices who will be missing in the Champions League, and by that they do not mean the Czech champion. It will be the first year in many years that the spectators will not see either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Ronaldo was one of the first big catches of the Arab offensive in Europe and now plays for Al Nassr. Messi shines in the pink jerseys of Inter Miami in the USA.

The aforementioned Karim Benzema will also be missing.

This season will also be the last in which the Champions League is played in the traditional format. The new form from the 2024/25 season will bring a number of innovations, especially the expansion of teams to 36 (instead of the current 32). The transition to the so-called Swiss system of the tournament, in which the clubs will be grouped into one common group instead of the previous groups of four, will be revolutionary.

2023-09-19 04:15:24
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