In club football. UEFA Champions league clearly stands out as the best, most interesting and most attractive competition in the world. 32 of the best European teams compete for the trophy that is awarded in May, after group stages and knockout rounds. For the 2013/2014 season, the final match will be played in Lisbon and the road for a place in the final continued in February, when first games of the knockout stages were played. After several games and group stages, we have two teams that considerably stronger than others and count as favorites.
In the group stages, the team that has impressed mostly is the title defender from previous season. Bavarian giants, Bayern Munich. In the exciting campaign, Bayern won the title by beating Dortmund in the final, which was the final match for manager Jupp Heynckens. However, Bayern fans did not worry as the board of the club already confirmed the appointment of former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.
Many feared for Bayern, since Guardiola only managed Barcelona before. The team picked up and improved significantly from the Heynckens era and is playing a completely different football, with several player embarking as potential leaders of the team in the future. The atmosphere of the team is great and there are no bad implications nor signs of negative energy. With the signing of Barcelona diamond, Thiago Alcantara Bayern received the necessary creativity in the midfield and applied the tiki taka philosophy, previously used in Barcelona by Guardiola. Although no team defended the Champions league trophy in the past 20 years, Bayern looks like a very comfortable candidate to achieve this and it would be a bit of a surprise if he fails to do so.
After a relatively slow start of the Primera and the Champions league season, the situation at Real Madrid improved heavily and Real Madrid is now top of the table and is seriously looking to compete for the Champions league trophy after many years. With the signing of Gareth Bale, Real Madrid received that extra forward that can be dangerous to the opponent’s defense and with his outside-box qualities, he is a true reinforcement to a Real Madrid squad. Of course, we can’t forget about the world’s best player in this moment, Cristiano Ronaldo, who is playing the football of his life and almost singlehandedly leads Real Madrid this season.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti replaced Jose Mourinho and picked up his game and improved the squad with some unexpected moves, like promoting Jese Rodriguez to first team and giving Luka Modrić more space in the middle, who is, besides Bale and Ronaldo, the best player for Real Madrid so far. In order for a team to win the Champions league trophy, several conditions must be fulfilled, such as motivation, team spirit and team harmony. Currently, Real Madrid has all of that and I would not be surprised to see them lift the trophy in May.
There is a list of other teams that could proceed to the finals and it would be unfair to exclude them automatically. But, in my all statistical pointers, these two teams have what it takes to make to the end.
