The World Cup is barely over and here we go again with the Champions League returning. The long road to the final in Athens next May begins this week.
The match of the opening week is Manchester United against Celtic at Old Trafford on Wednesday and it will be a cracker. Celtic are well used to making the trip down south for testimonial matches but this is different. They were there in May for the Roy Keane Testimonial and lost 1-0 but while that match was competitive, it was a friendly.
There is so much more at stake on Wednesday. United failed to make it out of the group stages last season and Alex Ferguson has already said he believes they will not fail to get out of the group this time. Manchester United will start the match as favourites but will take nothing for granted. There are many angles to this with Gordon Strachan returning to his old club to face his old manager from Aberdeen and Manchester United – there is no love lost between the pair but that will not matter once the match begins.
The Scottish champions have been busy on the transfer market with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink arriving from PSV Eindhoven along with Tommy Graveson from Real Madrid. These players have greatly improved their squad and they will make the second round at some time in the future so why not this time around. They will have only 4000 fans at the ground but those supporters will make plenty of noise. Celtic had to watch while Rangers made the knockout round last season and the pressure is on them to do the same this time around.
It will be fast and furious and there will not be much in it at the end of the 90 minutes. United should just about shade it but they have been slow starters in this competition in the last few years and Celtic will take advantage if they have a poor night.
Chelsea are not too far away from being favourites to win the UEFA Champions League this season but there is pressure on the squad and the manager to produce the silverware this season. Their squad is so full of quality players that they will at least make the last four, unless something pretty dramatic happens. Most of the focus in Group A is on their meetings with Barcelona but they start on Tuesday in London against Werder Bremen. The Germans have done well in this competition in the past and this will be a very tough test for Chelsea. I would fancy Chelsea to win on the night with Ballack and Shevchenko the players who could help propel them to Athens next May.
I will be in Holland on Tuesday to see Liverpool tackle PSV Eindhoven in the opening match in Group C. PSV have sold most of the team that took them to the semi-finals two seasons ago but they are still good performers in Europe and the Philips Stadium is a tough place to go and get a result. Liverpool fans will be worried after their derby hammering at Everton on Saturday and a draw would represent a good start for Liverpool. Benitez spent heavily in the summer but those new players will need time to settle in and the manager will need to find the right balance in his team. On the evidence of what happened on Saturday, that balance has still not been found. Their defence was very poor at Goodison Park and expect a huge improvement from them on Tuesday. They will be quite happy if they can come away with a point.
Arsenal are in Group G and they are away on matchday one against Hamburg. This will be very for last season's beaten finalists. Hamburg have been busy putting together a decent squad in the last few seasons with this competition in mind. They have aimed for qualification and now they have made it, they will want to make a very big impression. Arsenal have been stuttering in the last few weeks and could be caught on the hop here. Wenger was able to lead his team on a long unbeaten run in the Champions League last season but that came to an end in the final in Paris. They will be keen to start well in Germany and a draw could be just the job for The Gunners.
