Champions League Under The Lights: Munich, Paris & Liverpool Roar Across Europe (Part 1) | OneFootball

Champions League football is finally back. After such a thrilling campaign last time out with the new League Phase format as well as Paris Saint-Germain taking center stage in Munich in a historic night against Inter, European football’s elite competition returns bigger and greater than ever before. So many contenders, so many dark horses, so many exciting games.

This is your Champions League matchday 1 preview, part 1, as we look into some of Tuesday’s top matches.

Athletic Club vs Arsenal

For the first time ever, Athletic Club and Arsenal meet in a competitive game. It’s quite the intriguing opening game of the new Champions League season with two Spanish coaches colliding against one another.

Ernesto Valverde has done a fantastic job for the Basque side, who finished in the Champions League spots for the first time last season since the 2013/14 season, where they also finished 4th. That time however, it wasn’t a guaranteed Champions League spot, but they did make the group stage where they finished 3rd and dropped into the Europa League during the 2014/15 season.

Valverde also guided Athletic Club to the Europa League Semi Final last season, where they were comfortably beaten by Manchester United. He will hope this season is even more successful for his side despite defeat on Saturday to Deportivo Alaves.

In North London, Mikel Arteta has done a successful job turning the fortunes around at Arsenal across the last 5 and a half years. From doubters stuck with mediocrity to a side with a belief and plenty of physical power that can hurt any team at any time and playing in the Champions League consistently. He helped Arsenal reach the Champions League Semi Final last season, where they fell short to Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint-Germain, who went on to beat Inter 5-0 in Munich.

Arsenal returned from the international break with victory over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday lunchtime, a good display and result which sees them take momentum into Tuesday night’s clash with Athletic Club.

The Gunners will hope they can get off to a winning start in the Champions League this season after being held to a goalless draw against Atlanta last season on the opening matchday.

This should hopefully be an intriguing tactical battle with both coaches valuing the physical and technical aspects. Athletic Club will hope they can play out from the back, through the lines, get into good wide areas, get someone like Oihan Sancet into dangerous positions around the box where he’s capable of scoring and creating. The key for them will be doing this with plenty of movement from players higher up the pitch to create space whilst also moving the ball around with rhythm.

Arsenal will want to use their far superior physicality by basically overpowering them from set piece scenarios, which we know how strong they are from, as well as intense pressing. Putting pressure onto the smart technical players Athletic Club will also be important.

Tottenham vs Villarreal

From one side of North London to the other, we now look into Tottenham’s first game back in the Champions League after they secured their spot via Europa League success in Bilbao last season when they defeated Manchester United 1-0 in the final.

Under a new manager in Thomas Frank, who has got off to a positive start in N17, he hopes he can replicate the Premier League form shown early on into the Champions League when his side welcome Villarreal to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Tottenham got themselves back to winning ways over the weekend after the international break, comfortably defeating West Ham at the London Stadium 3-0 on Saturday evening. Thomas Frank will be delighted that Lucas Bergvall was able to put in a great performance as well as getting on the scoresheet. Pape Sarr and Micky Van de Ven also scored which shows the goals for Tottenham can come across the pitch, not just the forward players.

Villarreal on the other hand were beaten at the weekend away from home against Atletico Madrid, losing 2-0 with goals coming from Pablo Barrios and Nico González.

Despite defeat last Saturday, the Spanish side have actually had quite a positive start to the campaign winning two of their opening three before the international break. They currently sit 5th in La Liga and will definitely be quietly confident they can get something at the home of the Europa League holders.

From a tactical perspective, it should be a fascinating watch if you choose to watch this game. Nicolas Pepe should be someone to keep an eye on. Villarreal set up in a 4-4-2 shape and with Pepe effectively a second striker, his movements and runs are dangerous on the counter attack so Tottenham need to be award of his threat.

From the Tottenham perspective, control is the key with the likes of Pape Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur, João Palhinha likely to be the starting three in midfield for Thomas Frank. If they can control the game and hold good pitch territory then they’re capable of pinning Villarreal in and hurting them from wide areas and clever movements.

Juventus vs Borussia Dortmund

On paper, this certainly looks like a Champions League classic but these sides are probably not what they once used to be as the top dog in their respective countries. They’re both still very good teams however so this should be a good watch from the Allianz Stadium.

Juventus won a thrilling Derby d’Italia over the weekend against bitter rivals Inter, where the Bianconeri went ahead twice then fell behind going 3-2 down before two late goals saw them win 4-3. Following such chaotic and energetic game, they’ll definitely be full of confidence ahead of Tuesday night when they welcome Borussia Dortmund to Turin. Kenan Yildiz is a man to watch out for, he is in hot form and is dangerous at any moment whilst also being capable of producing a moment of world class quality.

Borussia Dortmund also come into this game having picked up three points in the league, they travelled to FC Heidenheim and got a comfortably got themselves a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Guirassy and Beier. They’ll also feel fairly confident ahead of the game in Turin considering they were able to restrict Heidenheim to such little goal threat, 6 shots with just one on target and that only produced 0.40 xG. Borussia Dortmund had 17 shots, 8 of those were on target and that produced 2.76 xG.

Just like Tottenham vs Villarreal, this should also be a quite intriguing tactical battle should you chosee this game. Both sides set up in a back three, aiming to utilise width through their wing backs. They have two midfielders who are capable of controlling matches as well as adding intensity and energy if required to as well. It should prove to be the battle of control, energy and territory.