Champions League kicks off with European giants hunting PSG | OneFootball

With the start of a new edition of the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) begins this week to defend the trophy won last season, something all the great teams in European football also aspire to.

The French club ended a decade of European disappointments with the title in May, after thrashing Inter Milan 5-0 in the final, becoming the second French team to lift the trophy, after Olympique de Marseille (1993).

Due to their squad and champion status, PSG is one of the main contenders for the title, but keeping the crown is not easy, as evidenced by the fact that, in the last 35 years, only Real Madrid has managed this feat.

The list of contenders for the European throne is long, starting with the six English clubs in the competition, which shows the current power of the Premier League (Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Newcastle), accompanied by the traditional Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Inter, and Juventus.

More Important to Finish in the Top 8

The world's most important club tournament will repeat the format launched last year, with a first phase featuring 36 teams, each facing eight opponents and a common ranking, after which the top 24 will compete for the title in knockout stages.

As demonstrated last season, this format offers clubs a greater margin for error. PSG itself qualified for the knockout stages with four wins and three losses, but from there proved unstoppable, successively eliminating Brest, Liverpool (leader of the league phase), Aston Villa, and Arsenal in the round of 16 and thrashing Inter Milan in the final.

The primary goal for the big teams is to finish among the top 8 and thus secure a direct passage to the round of 16 (teams ranked 9th to 24th will have to play a playoff).

“Winning five games and drawing one to finish among the top eight is not easy,” warned the Parisian team coach, Luis Enrique.

One of the major changes is that this year, it will be more important to finish as high as possible in the league phase, as in the knockout stage, the higher-ranked team will play the second leg at home.

For Glory... and Money

In football, which has also become a business, clubs will not only fight for sporting glory but also for the substantial prize money that UEFA distributes in its main competition.

Just for participating, each club will earn a minimum of €18.62 million (about R$116.6 million), a value that increases as the tournament progresses. It is estimated that PSG collected around €150 million (approximately R$939.2 million) thanks to their title.

Paradoxically, all this means that the tournament that should represent European football is increasingly a competition for clubs from the major leagues.

Of the 36 participating teams, 22 are from the five main leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France), and only 16 of the 55 federations that make up UEFA are represented in the tournament.

PSG's victory was the first since 2004 (Porto) by a club not from England, Spain, Germany, or Italy.

And everything seems to indicate, with a format that favors the giants, who also threaten to create a closed parallel competition (the so-called Super League), that the champion on May 30, at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, will come from one of these major leagues.

Great Matches from the Start

But UEFA defends its competition. “This format is here to stay. We are convinced it will be a resounding success that will eclipse everything we have achieved before,” declared UEFA's Deputy General Secretary, Giorgio Marchetti.

What UEFA has ensured are great matches every round, starting with the first this week, with Bayern vs. Chelsea, Liverpool vs. Atlético Madrid, and the return of Kevin de Bruyne, now wearing Napoli's jersey, to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City. And a list of stars comparable only to those of a World Cup.

But this tournament is not just about stars, history, and money. Every year, some modest teams have the opportunity to experience facing the best.

This time, the highlights include Kairat Almaty, Real Madrid's opponent (the Spanish capital is more than 8,000 km from the Kazakh city), the Norwegian Bodo/Glimt (very close to the Arctic Circle), and Pafos from Cyprus, defended by Brazilian defender David Luiz.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.