What could be better for any football fan than the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) during the middle of the week? We all eagerly await Tuesday and Wednesday to see the best football in the world and the pursuit of the holy grail of football – the Champions League trophy.
Every year, after the group stage, there is a break of several months until the middle of February, when it’s time for the round of 16. At that moment, we only know the pairings of the round of 16, and after the round is completed, there will be a draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals. Real Madrid is always among the main favorites, but we cannot take that for granted. It’s time to analyze the main football topic at the moment, which is Champions league knockout stage predictions 2024 and to find how the favorites are.
Champions league knockout stage predictions 2024
As reported by bettinginIndia, for most online casinos and bookmakers, Manchester City is the first favorite followed by Bayern Munich and PSG. We will go more in depth and analyze most of the teams trying to find a 2024 winner.
Manchester City
Source: goal.com
The club led by Pep Guardiola is the first favorite both in the Champions League and in the Premier League. But as we can see, they are not dominating the English championship. Although Halland is on the pace to shatter all records, Arsenal is first in the table and the points difference is serious. Of course, this does not mean anything for the Champions League, but it is clear that City is unable to overcome certain problems both in defense and in attack.
RB Lepisdig should not be a major problem for them in the finals, and we will see later. Now they have a fantastic opportunity to finally win the most important trophy and include themselves among the elite clubs that they were not until about 10 years ago.
Bayern Munich
Source: frontofficesports.com
Bayern has been a powerhouse of world football for as long as we can remember. This year they are not as dominant in the Bundesliga as we are used to, but it still seems that no team can match their pace in Germany. What exactly they will do in the Champions League is a mystery at the moment. They got the toughest possible rival, PSG, which we will talk about in the next paragraph. The winner of that match can certainly win the title, and who it will be is completely uncertain. Odds will certainly be identical on both teams because very little separates them. The public believes in PSG more, but you should not count out Bayern because they are born winners.
PSG
Source: outlookindia.com
Similar to Manchester City, PSG is trying to win this trophy and remove the label of new money team, and become a real elite like Real, Barcelona and Milan. They now have some of the world’s best players in their ranks. There is Messi, who during the World Cup showed how much he is still worth. Mbappe and Neymar simply have to bring the title to Paris, but Bayern will surely want to stop them. We expect many goals in both matches, and we are not yet sure who we will support. A new title in France is right around the corner for PSG, but it is certainly not something that will satisfy them.
Liverpool
Source: aljazeera.com
Liverpool is playing disastrously in the Premier League this year and it is almost certain that they will not finish among the top 5 teams. That’s why they will be especially dangerous in the Champions League because they will completely focus on that competition. This is their only chance to play it next year, and it will start with Real Madrid. It will be a duel between two of the five most trophy-winning and famous clubs of all time.
Real Madrid
Source: marca.com
What can I say about Real Madrid without everyone already knowing… the team that won 14 titles and will surely win many more in history. At the moment, they don’t have such well-known players as we were used to when they were Los Galacticos at the beginning of the 21st century and a few years ago led by Christian Ronaldo. They denied all those who doubted when they won last year and they can certainly do it again this year.
Napoli
Source: sportal.blic.rs
This is somewhat surprising as Napoli haven’t been that important in European football since Maradona played for them. But right now they are by far the best team in Italy, they will win the final Scudetto almost certainly, and they will try to attack the European title as well. I’m not sure if they will be able to, but they got the easiest possible rival to start with, Frankfurt.
Other teams
Source: chelseafc.com
We must mention the London duo, Chelsea and Tottenham, as teams that are always at the very top, and Chelsea has won the title several times. They are followed by teams from Milan, who are in worse shape than last year. Borussia and Porto may surprise, while Breeze, Frankfurt and Leipzig have probably already pressed their expectations.
Conclusion:
All this is the road to the finals, which will be played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul was supposed to be the host in 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, everything was postponed and rescheduled. We have no doubt that the organization will be perfect, and we hope that the final will live up to expectations. Who will you root for? Do you expect one of the most famous teams to win or will there be a surprise? These are all questions that we are waiting for an answer to, and the first step will be taken on February 14, when the teams take to the fields across Europe. We are a list of favorites for you, and there will surely be at least a few surprising results. After all, not a single team is among the 16 best in Europe and therefore in the world by chance. Their efforts are worth of our admiration.
