Can PSG Win Back-to-Back vs English Rivals?

The Champions League is back! Just over three months after Paris Saint-Germain thrashed Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich to lift the trophy for the first time, European football’s most prestigious prize is up for grabs again.

The holders are one of 36 teams in the league phase, which kicks off on Tuesday and which, like last season, will consist of a mammoth 189 matches to whittle the field down to 24 by the end of January.

The Premier League teams is the most represented league with a record-high six teams in the competition, while Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt and Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise will make their debut as will Pafos of Cyprus and Kairat of Kazakhstan, who will face Real Madrid.

As ever, CBS Sports and Paramount+ retain the exclusive English-language rights holders in the US, while TNT Sports and Amazon Prime share the TV rights in the UK.

Here are five storylines to watch as the Champions League kicks off.

Is the new Champions League format still in place?

Yes and it will remain so at least until 2027, much to the chagrin of its many detractors.

The Champions League this season will follow the same format that was first introduced last year, in which 36 teams qualify for a so-called league phase, instead of having 32 teams split in eight groups of four.

Whereas in the old format clubs would play the other three teams in their group home and away, they now play eight games, four of them at home and four of them away.

Teams are paired against two teams from four pots based on UEFA coefficient, but cannot be drawn against clubs from the same country.

The league phase concludes in January next year, with the top eight teams going straight through to the knockout stages, while teams ranked between ninth and 24th to face each other in eight play-offs ties to determine the remaining eight teams to qualify for the Round of 16.

The bottom 12 teams, meanwhile, will be eliminated.

The expanded format should in theory be conducive to more entertainment in the shape of matches between Europe’s best clubs and a last round in which it all could all be on the line for several teams.

Last season, all 18 matches kicked off simultaneously on the final round of the league phase and delivered a combined 64 goals. And yet, it is hard to dispel the feeling the competition is now bloated and the jeopardy that existed with the previous format has been almost entirely diluted.

Can the Premier League make its superiority count?

English football has already made history in the Champions League season, before the proverbial ball has been kicked in anger. Never been before in the history of the competition had a league been represented by six teams at any one time up until this season.

Six Premier League teams will feature in European football’s biggest tournament this term, with Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham all taking part.

The former five qualified via through league position, while Spurs clinched an extra spot after lifting the Europa League last season.

While Premier League clubs have been kept apart in the draw for the league phase, they can meet in the knockout stages.

The critics will point out the large English contingent as a case of the rich getting richer courtesy of the Champions League prize money, a legitimate gripe given the Premier League already operates on a different financial playing level from their European counterparts.

Conversely, however, this scenario was always on the cards as part of the Champions League’s expansion.

And yet, for all its financial might, the Premier League hasn’t had a Champions League finalist in the past two seasons.

It is a veritable drought for a league that had at least one representative in the final in five of the previous six years and three winners over the period.

After winning the Premier League at a canter last season and strengthening in the summer to the tune of £500m ($682m) Liverpool are the bookmakers’ favourites, with Arsenal and Manchester City close behind.

Can Paris Saint-Germain go back-to-back?

No team has lifted the Champions League in consecutive seasons since Real Madrid won three in a row between 2016 and 2018.

To find the last repeated winner before that, one has to go all the way back to 1990 when AC Milan successfully defended their title and the Champions League still went by the name of European Cup.

In short, winning European football’s biggest prize twice in a row is incredibly difficult, a theory PSG will put to the test this season.

The Parisians thrashed Inter Milan in May to claim the trophy for the first time and lift a huge metaphorical burden off their back.

Suggestions the triumph in Munich was the starting point of a new era of dominance proved somewhat wide of the mark as PSG lost to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final and needed a penalty shootout to prevail over Tottenham in the European Super Cup.

Luis Enrique has kept the core of last season’s winning team largely intact and PSG can still lay claim to have arguably the best midfield unit in world football with Vitinha, Joao Neves and Fabian Ruiz.

The front three of Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, meanwhile, offers dynamism, goals and speed.

The one notable difference to last season’s Champions League-winning team will be in goal, where Gianluigi Donnarumma has left to join Manchester City and has been replaced by Lucas Chevalier.

It was a surprise decision by Luis Enrique and one that could very well attract unwanted pressure if the Ligue 1 giants struggle in the league phase, which includes fixtures against Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Newcastle and Spurs.

At the same time, PSG were on the verge of being knocked out last term and ended up lifting the trophy and have hit the ground running domestically with four wins in four league outings.

In short, count them out at your peril.

Will LaLiga giants bounce back?

The Xabi Alonso era at Real Madrid is off to a great start, with Los Blancos top of LaLiga with four wins in four games.

But while wrestling the league title back from Barcelona at the first time of asking would represent success for Alonso, the litmus test for any Real Madrid manager remains the Champions League.

By their lofty standards, Madrid endured a dismal European campaign last term, suffering the ignominy of having to go through the play-offs to qualify for the Round of 16 before being trounced 5-1 on aggregate by Arsenal in the quarter-finals.

Alonso is now tasked with restoring pride at Madrid, a club that embodies the Champions League more than any other in European football after lifting the trophy a record 15 times.

In Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham and Arda Guler, Alonso has a squad bulging with talent at his disposal, one whose ceiling was lifted further by the summer arrivals of Dean Huijsen, Federico Mastantuono, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Alvaro Carreras for a combined £145m ($200m).

Another early exit is a prospect Madrid cannot countenance, but with great expectations comes great pressure. It remains to be seen whether Alonso can live up to it.

If being knocked out in the quarter-finals was an anomaly for a club that had won the Champions League twice in the previous four seasons, it felt all too common for Barcelona.

The Catalans featured in arguably the greatest semi-final in the tournament’s history as they were knocked out by Inter Milan 7-6 on aggregate, but it was scant consolation for Hansi Flick.

It is now 10 years since Barcelona last reached a Champions League final and while they have arguably the best player in the world in Lamine Yamal, their defensive defcincies could again count against them.

Time for Antonio Conte to deliver

Antonio Conte is a manager who embodies a curious dichotomy.

Over the past 14 years, the Italian has won six league titles across Italy and England with Juventus, Inter Milan, Napoli and Chelsea.

And yet, he’s struggled to translate his domestic dominance into European success, with his best result coming in 2013 when he took Juventus to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Conte has often come across as a manager who considers European football as a hindrance to his league plans rather than a challenge to relish, but he may abandon that approach this season.

Having won the Serie A title at the first time of asking with Napoli last season, Conte looked set to depart in the aftermath of his triumph, before being convinced to remain at the feet of Mount Vesuvius by club president Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Never a man shy of making his case, Conte made clear Napoli would have to strengthen if they are to compete on three fronts this season and his requests were met.

The Azzurri signed Kevin De Bruyne, Rasmus Hojlund, Sam Beukema, Noa Lang and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic all arriving for a combined £100m ($135m).

Napoli remain the best team in Italy so far – they are top of the league with Juventus after three games, with both teams boasting a perfect record – and have enough quality at their disposal to go deep in the Champions League.

Conte acknowledged as much ahead of Napoli’s first game against Manchester City on Thursday, when for once he didn’t seek to temper expectations.

“We’ve strengthened the team to be more competitive in Europe,” he admitted.

The expanded format means it’s easier for clubs to qualify and it would be a major disappointment if Napoli were to head for an early exit.

Like Conte, the reigning Serie A champions have never made it past the Champions League quarter-finals. Time for both to address their record this season.