UEFA Champions League Preview – Group A

The Group A of the UEFA Champions League put together two of the biggest favorites for the title, PSG and Manchester City. Apart from them, RB Leipzig is involved, as well as the Belgian champions, Club Brugge. We don’t need to tell you about the favorites for advancing to the next stage, because that is so obvious, but still, one short preview would mind.

PSG

With Messi in the team, PSG is the biggest favorite for winning the UCL, which is pretty much a logical assumption. Besides Messi, PSG has Mbappe, Neymar, Di Maria etc, pretty much the most potent offensive line in the last 20 years.

The only thing we don’t like here is Mauricio Pochettino, who is, let’s be honest, an excellent head coach, but not the elite one. He only has two trophies in his collection, and those were minor ones with the Saints – Coupe de France, and Trophee des Champions.

As usual, Paris Saint Germain will play offensive and attacking-minded football with many goals, so expect to see high efficiency each time they step on the pitch. The defense is slightly better than average, and we believe that there will be plenty of work for Donarrumma as well.

Manchester City

So the Citizens did lose the finals last year, but we like to think that it was solely because they didn’t have Kevin De Bruyne, who was a victim of Rudiger’s savage tackle. In our opinion, Chelsea’s defender injured the Belgian deliberately, and he was supposed to be suspended for a long time.

Guardiola didn’t land Harry Kane, yet he got Jack Grealish, who should ease the pressure on Gundogan and de Bruyne. He is the only big signature, and it appears that Guardiola has a lot of trust in this unit.

Man City transformed its play style from ultra offensive into a steady, grinding machine that often scores the goal and routinely leads the match until the final whistle. The efficiency of their events significantly dropped compared to those from a few years ago, because Guardiola preserves the team’s energy for the latter stages of the season.

RB Leipzig

The Bulls suffered three big hits during the summer, losing Upamecano and Nagelsmann, who left for Bayern Munich, and Konate, who is in Liverpool. We’ll see how they handle that. Nagelsmann’s replacement came from Red Bull Salzburg, Jesse March, the 47-year old American, whose philosophy of play is slightly more offensive.

He has one of the most talented groups of guys at disposal this year, with RB Leipzig landing several youngsters with unreal potential, maybe even better than Borussia Dortmund has.

Andre Silva from Eintracht is the biggest addition to the team, the same as Brian Brobbey. But what we want you to remember is the name Ilaix Moriba, who landed from Barcelona and has the potential to become a world-class midfielder.

Club Brugge

The Belgian champions have been dominating the domestic league for years, and their reign is a product of a very well system that has been developing for a long time. As you can see, Club Brugge improves from season to season when talking about the UCL results, but to be honest, they don’t have any chances of attacking the top two places, and snapping the third one would be a surprise as well. Simply, this group is ultra-tough.

But that won’t prevent the Belgians from showing their worth, and they do have so many reasons to be proud. This unit plays modern and appealing football, with lots of goals and chances, and they don’t want to back down regardless of the rivals across the pitch.

Brugge invested a lot in the squad this summer, and all of the arrivals were young and talented guys, some of them projected to be worth more than $40 or $50 million in the next year or two. Of course, Ruud Vormer, Hans Vanaken, and Bas Dost are the leaders, and those youngsters will mature and develop playing with these veterans.

Here are the peviews for other UEFA Champions League groups:

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H