Analysis: The four top Champions League contenders

By Kartikeya Bhattacharyya

New Delhi, Feb 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Champions League restarts later on Tuesday (8 p.m. GMT) with clashes between Sporting CP and Manchester City as well as a match between record winners Real Madrid and French superpower Paris Saint Germain.

While the Champions League has seen its fair share of upsets with the most recent being a round-of-16 victory by Porto over Serie A giants Juventus, most of the time the trophy is won by Europe's richest teams as the format of the tournament naturally favours teams with strong squad depth, with every team in the competition having to juggle their European aspirations with domestic fixtures.

This list aims to look at the four teams likely to take home the trophy:

1. Liverpool

   Even though the last season saw Liverpool ravaged by injuries across the backline, they still managed to reach the semifinals. This year, they will aim to go all the way and they have the tools to do so with a lot of this squad having already experienced great success in the competition as they won it in the 2018/19 season.

   Last season, Liverpool saw a long-term injury to their star centre-back Virgil van Dijk. This season he has played 22 out of 24 league games for the Reds in what has been a big boost to their defence, as goalkeeper Alisson has kept 12 clean sheets already compared to the 10 he managed last season, showing the importance of van Dijk in the backline.

   Van Dijk is perhaps the best defender in the world on current form and having him has enabled Liverpool maintain their high-octane offensive approach without compromising their defensive solidity.

   While last year's leaky defence is a thing of the past, Liverpool's main weapon this year is their firepower upfront. The likes of Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota, Sadio Mane, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah are options across the forward line with Salah, in particular, hitting levels of form that has seen him become a Ballon d'Or contender, scoring 16 goals and nine assists in 21 league games.

   He is comfortably the top scorer of the league and has the second-best assist tally behind only team-mate Trent Alexander Arnold, who has redefined the position of fullback. Despite nominally being a defender, Arnold has creative numbers that rival high-quality attacking midfielders.

   Another key Liverpool strength is their manager Jurgen Klopp who has extensive experience in this competition, having reached the final three times, notably taking underdogs Borussia Dortmund within fingertips of the trophy.

   Klopp is famed not only for his tactical acumen but his man-management as well with his ability to motivate players being unrivalled, as Liverpool's players play with a passion and intensity that is pretty much unmatched across Europe.

   While Liverpool have good defensive and attacking depth, an injury to either Thiago or Fabinho might prove disastrous for the team. When the two play together, Liverpool's three-man midfield has solidity but without them it looks vulnerable as the other midfield options are either too attack-minded, like Naby Keita and Curtis Jones, or are physically declining, like Jordan Henderson and James Milner, leading to Liverpool's games becoming an end-to-end affair that leave them reliant on their attackers being in good form.

   Usually this works in the favour of the Reds but this is a risky approach to take against the other top contenders who are stacked with talented attacking options.

   Thiago, in particular, is injury-prone having made only nine starts in the Premier League this season with injuries and COVID-19 leaving him sidelined for the majority of Liverpool's league games. With no midfield reinforcements added in the winter transfer window, Liverpool will have to cross their fingers and hope that they keep him fit.

2. Manchester City

   Manchester City have long been seen as favourites, yet have never quite managed to do it in the Champions League, faltering last year at the final hurdle. This year, City retain much of the same squad with the addition of 117 million euros star-signing Jack Grealish. They have looked unstoppable in the Premier League, going 15 games unbeaten since their loss to Crystal Palace in October.

   City's dominance is best illustrated by the fact that they are both the top scorers of the league as well as have conceded the least goals so far, with their high-possession approach suffocating teams and preventing them from getting out of their own box. City average a whopping 63.7 per cent possession per game.

   Unlike other teams, City do not have a main star one can point to. Rather, their strength lies in their squad depth as they are stacked in nearly every position of the field. In fact, they are so stacked that even record signing Grealish has only made 15 starts so far. He is not the only talented player who has seen his minutes cut short this season, as last season's top scorer Ilkay Gundogan has only made 13 starts with Bernardo Silva's terrific form relegating him to the bench.

   When one pairs City's talented roster with Pep Guardiola -- a manager who many consider to be the best ever -- it doesn't seem like there are any flaws in the team's game, and for the most part that is true. But in such a high-level competition, even the smallest flaw will be exploited. If City have a weakness, it is the fact that they lack a world-class striker. While City's lack of striker makes them hard to defend due to the fluid rotations between the attackers, it often means that the through balls and crosses of creative genius Kevin De Bruyne go abegging.

   In knockout football, it is important to have someone who can turn a half chance into a goal due to the variance of the individual games, but City cannot call on someone like that and this lack of a predatory forward sometimes leads to City keeping endless amounts of the ball only to be let down at the last minute due to the lack of any real box presence.

3. Paris Saint Germain

   PSG's strengths are so obvious. They possess three of the world's best attackers in Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi, while also having the services of Angel Di Maria. This level of individual talent alone is enough to propel teams to victory as was seen during the three Champions League titles Real Madrid won from 2016 to 2018. Though the Spanish giants weren't the most cohesive, the talent of the players was such that they would change the game with their brilliance.

   Attack is not the only place where PSG boast of excellent talent, as they have Euro 2020 winner Marco Verratti in the midfield. Verratti is as close to a complete midfielder as they come. He can do it all from mazy dribbles to line-breaking passes as well as the dirty defensive work. They also have right-back Achraf Hakimi in defence, whose searing pace and smart passing constantly trouble the opposition and ensures that even if their attackers are not firing, they will still find a way to break down defences.

   But all this individual brilliance comes at a cost as PSG often look defensively vulnerable due to the lack of defensive work from their famed front three, often leaving them with only seven men in defence. This approach may work in Ligue 1 where they have a ridiculous talent advantage, but it has already been exploited in the Champions League as Manchester City beat them 2-1 in November, playing through the lacklustre press of PSG.

   PSG's midfield is also an issue as Marco Verratti is frequently injured and without him the team looks disjointed, as they rely on him to connect the midfield to the attack. There is also an issue with their coach Mauricio Pochettino whose philosophy of football relies on hard work from everyone in the team, something that has not translated to this amalgamation of stars.

   PSG's squad may look unstoppable on paper but the reality is that they are not the heavy favourites one would think that they are.

4. Bayern Munich

   Bayern Munich are perennially considered favourites for this competitions, and this year it is no different as they have the world's best striker in Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski's form this season has been outstanding, scoring 26 goals in 22 league games showing no signs of slowing down on his record-breaking last season, which saw him score the most Bundesliga goals in one season with 41 strikes.

   His partner in crime Thomas Muller is a record-breaker as well as he has the honour of having the most assists in a single Bundesliga season with 21, and this season may see him exceed that tally as he has already assisted 16 times in 22 games for the German giants.

   When you pair these two with a strong defensive spine led by Joshua Kimmich -- arguably the world's best defensive midfielder -- and protected by Manuel Neuer who continues to redefine the goalkeeper position even at age 35, you have possibly the most balanced team in the entire competition.

   But the defensive spine isn't invulnerable as new centre-back signing Dayot Upamecano is still young and is thus prone to rashness and silly errors despite his obvious talent. Bayern also have to worry about the fact that if Lewandowski gets injured, they have no reliable back-up as substitute striker Eric Choupo Mouting is nowhere near the quality of the Polish hitman, which was proven when he had to fill in for him in last year's quarterfinal elimination to PSG.

   The Champions League has always delivered in terms of quality match-ups and, with the strength of the teams this time around, it promises to continue to deliver.

Source: IANS