The Champions League is the ultimate prize in club football, clubs aspire and dream of winning the Champions League every year. The very highest of the highest has been able to crack this prized trophy. Let's look at the prediction of who can win the Champions League in the upcoming season.
Here are the top contenders who can win the Champions League in 2024 -
1. Manchester City
Manchester City has been able to replicate the historic treble which has been only achieved by teams like FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester United. The city has been dominating the Premier League but has been annihilated by Manchester City after a dominating display from Pep's Side.
Winning the Champions League has been no secret from the Premier League side who had endured a heartbreaking final in 2021 at the hands of Chelsea. After coming agonizingly close again in the 2022 season only to be historically defeated by Real Madrid but were able to take revenge on Madrid in 2023 after trashing them 4-0 in the semi-finals in the Etihad.
Pep has a very mature team in his hands. Every position has a world-class player who has been at the top of their games for a very long time. Pep's dilemma of number 9 has been solved by the signing of Erling Haaland. The Norwegian has been astronomically impressive this season one of the crucial factors for Manchester City in winning the treble.
2. Real Madrid
When it comes to Europe Real Madrid has been the team to beat with 14 Champions League it is the most successful club when it comes to the Champions League.
Even the most successful clubs like Pep Guardiola have confessed saying "If you want to win the Champions League You have to beat Real Madrid".
With a historic season in 2022, Real Madrid lifted their 14th Champions League in Paris, defeating the superstar trio of Mbappe, Neymar and Messi, Chelsea (pd previous Champions), Manchester City and Liverpool.
Real Madrid cannot be counted out as there is no solid confirmation about a team that is made just to win the Champions League for Real Madrid.
Any team Real Madrid fields out there are expected to win the Champions League.
Real Madrid lacks a number 9 right now with the departure of Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema at the end of the 2023 season there has been left a big hole in the attacking portion for Real Madrid.
Hence they are in the hunt for a perfect CF right now which can only be filled by the arrival of their target Kylian Mbappe.
If the signing of the Frenchman is successful Real Madrid has a very good chance of winning the Champions League as a determined Mbappe might be enough with the combination of Madrid's strength for their 15th UCL title.
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3. Bayern Munich.
Again, Bayern Munich has not been at top form this season, they needed more firepower provided by Robert Lewandowski narrowly winning the League this season against their rival Borussia Dortmund with a mere one point.
This Bayern Munich team doesn't seem to have any trouble in playing and dominating the opposition their only problem visible to the naked eye is their lack of a good quality striker.
The departure of Robert Lewandowski has seriously hampered Bayern as their search for a new number 9 landed them with Sadio Mane, who against all the footballing abilities he has had not made any serious threat to offensive capabilities for Bayern Munich.
If Bayern Munich can sign a player like Harry Kane this summer or somehow fix the existing striker inefficiency then this Bayern Munich team can challenge for UCL.
Point to remember this was the same Bayern team who were able to stop the superstar trio of Messi, Neymar, and Mbappe in the Round-of-16 of the Champions League.
4. Napoli
Napoli has just created history after winning the Seria A after more than 30 years of agonizing wait for the title.
The very own Diego Maradona's outfit has been the best team in Italy this season, Even though Napoli might not share a golden history in the Champions League it still has the potential to become the champions.
Young Blood coming through the ranks this season has provided the fire which was used to win the title in Italy.
Coming through the ranks are the strikers like Victor Osimhen and Kvara Napoli has the youngest and most talented attack this season with a rising defender named Kim Min-Jae also making his mark.
Napoli's effectiveness and sharp attacking football were on display when they thrashed the mighty Liverpool who are said to have the best History when it comes to the Champions League with a humiliating defeat of 4-0.
Napoli was the underdog this season no doubt about that the only shortcoming was the experience they needed to perform on bigger nights which was understandable for a team that was absent quite frequently from Europe for quite some time.
5. Barcelona.
Yes, Barcelona there have been several improvements in this Barcelona side as the side which is usually mocked nowadays for not being able to compete in the highest order of club football Barcelona has had quite a 'reputation fall' recently.
Barcelona’s current squad is more than capable of competing in the Elite European football their 2022 transfer business has been quite remarkable signing players like Lewandowski who ended up winning the pichichi. Raphinha who has been very crucial for Xavi whenever Dembele was injured.
The current squad is also full of talented youngsters like Gavi who recently won the Golden Boy award, Pedri and the likes of Ronald Aruajo and Balde. Barcelona doesn't lack talent but the spark which it previously had in Europe.
Their 2023 transfer window also looks to come up with the best result as they have already signed a top player in Ikay Gundoan, a winning captain of Manchester City, sources say they are also on the verge of signing Victor Roque ‘a sensational Brazilian talent’ this summer, will Barcelona be able to pull those signings they might be something of a force who could at least challenge for the UCL.
Xavi has certainly been working hard to find a way to bring back the old Barca-styled Tiki-Taka football but the new modern fast football has obliged Xavi to take a different route this time Barca may be back but not with Tiki-Taka but with high press offensive football similar to Manchester City.
This season Barcelona does have that squad depth to at least challenge for the Semi-Finals.
Update on March 2024 -
The prediction has quite wholesomely been correct throughout the calendar year as 4 out of the 5 predicted teams are in the Champions League Quater Finals which is going to be played in April. Out of the predicted only Napoli has been eliminated in the Round-of-16 by Barcelona themselves.
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