The draw for the UEFA Champions League 2019/20 Group Stage has set out the tasks ahead for the participating teams. Everyone now knows what they have to do to try and reach the knockout stages of the competition.
Following the draw, Manchester City were moved into 10/3 odds and therefore outright favourites* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:33 pm) with Barcelona sandwiched between the Citizens and the reigning European Champions Liverpool.
Here we take a look at the group stage of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League and the outright winner odds now that we know the lineup.
Table of Contents
- 1 Champions League Winner Odds*
- 2 Groups:
- 3 Can it all come together for Manchester City?
- 4 Did Barcelona do enough in the transfer market?
- 5 Do Liverpool have the squad depth to repeat?
- 6 Can Zidane lead Real Madrid to more ECL success?
- 7 PSG, Bayern Munich and Juventus lead the chasing pack
- 8 Chelsea and Tottenham’s chances look slim
- 9 Who are the Champions League 2019/20 Dark Horses?
- 10 Predictions
Champions League Winner Odds*
Manchester City 10/3
Barcelona 5/1
Liverpool 13/2
Real Madrid 9/1
PSG 10/1
Juventus 11/1
Bayern Munich 12/1
Atletico Madrid 20/1
Borussia Dortmund 20/1
Tottenham 25/1
Chelsea 33/1
Inter Milan 50/1
Ajax 66/1
Bar 100/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 31st, 2019 at 11:33 pm)
Groups:
A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray
B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star
C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta
D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow
E: Liverpool FC, Napoli, RB Salzburg and Genk
F: FC Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Slavia Prague
G: Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig
H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille
Can it all come together for Manchester City?
The Citizens go as favourites and last season they were one of the front runners to get their hands on the trophy. In the last two campaigns, they have been stopped by English opposition in Liverpool and Spurs. But they have an elite squad and after dominating the Premier League for the last two seasons, Pep Guardiola will be hoping to make the Europan Cup break through for the club.
In the first round, they have a very easy group stage ahead of them, which will help. They go in Group C alongside Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta. Considering that Dinamo’s last four appearances in the group stage have seen them finish bottom on each occasion and Italian side Atalanta are making their debut, it leaves only Shakhtar as any kind of serious competition to Man City in terms of winning the top spot.
Given that the City should win top spot easily and should get an easier round of sixteen tie, it’s not unreasonable to pencil them in for a quarter-final berth at the very least. Guardiola isn’t one to sit still. He will probably have been thinking about this season’s quarter-finals as soon as City were dumped out last season. The Citizens are 10/3 odds to win outright* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:33 pm)
Did Barcelona do enough in the transfer market?
The Catalans were starting to be a bit of a fading force in the Champions League. Their solution? Spend money. They have gone big in the summer transfer market with the arrival of Antoine Greizman and Frenkie de Jong. The arrival of Griezmann is notable because he will alleviate a lot of pressure off the shoulders of Messi and Luis Suarez. He is a new dimension in the team who will get them goals.
However, they have weaknesses as the back and they need De Jong to settle into things as quickly as possible, as they don’t look particularly strong in the middle of the park. They are going to have to hit the ground running as well as they are in the so-called Group of Death alongside Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan (and Slavia Prague). There are absolutely no guarantees that the Catalans win that group.
Do Liverpool have the squad depth to repeat?
The reigning champions will be happy enough with the Group E challenges ahead. They take on Napoli (as they did last season in the group stage), RB Salzburg and Genk. It has been back to back Champions League Finals for the Reds of course and they will be hungry for more. As history shows, title defences in the Champions League (unless you are Real Madrid) are notoriously difficult things to pull off.
Will Liverpool have that edge again this season? The early signs of the new season is that their defence isn’t as strong as it was last season. They didn’t strengthen their squad over the summer either. But Jurgen Klopp does trust what he has and at the end of the day, it would be surprising if they weren’t at least in the quarters. It was touch and go for them in last season’s group stage campaign, going W3 L3 and qualifying in second place having scored two goals more than Napoli had done in the group. They should be more comfortable this go around.
Can Zidane lead Real Madrid to more ECL success?
Can Zinedine Zidane possibly lead Los Merengues to yet another Champions League title? They were a mess during the last campaign, their title defence being ended in the knockout stages by Ajax. It wasn’t just on the European front that they struggled though, they had a really poor season on the domestic front too. Like Barcelona, money is the answer to their problems. Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic and Rodyrgo joined to bolster their attack.
Eder Militao and Ferland Mendy have joined to strengthen the back. They are a side still on a bit of a rebuild though and it is hard to judge what is going to come from them at the end of the day. The pedigree is there in the competition clearly, the manager is still largely regarded as being lucky more than tactically brilliant. How Zidane puts the new pieces of the rebuild together is going to be huge, but they don’t immediately look like European Champions.
PSG, Bayern Munich and Juventus lead the chasing pack
It’s sort of reasonable to bunch these three together at the bookmakers have done in the Champions League outright winner odds. However, we think that PSG looks the weakest of them all. Their big project of throwing money around has gone into a bit more of a conservative spell and it seems like they are aware that the Champions League takes something special to win.
Bayern Munich have had a major rebuild at the back and they too have been struggling to get their act together in the UEFA Champions League and Borussia Dortmund at 20/1 look more of an appealing option than Bayern do. Juventus look just a little unsettled at the start of this new season. Their chance of success may have passed them by for the time being. They will pack a punch on the domestic scene but aren’t any better than the other two in this cluster of teams.
Chelsea and Tottenham’s chances look slim
The other two English representatives are big prices to go and win the tournament outright. You get the feeling that last season was Tottenham’s genuine chance. They just never showed up in the final against Liverpool and undid all of their great work through the campaign. It’s going to be so difficult for them to match that run but can take inspiration one supposes, from Liverpool’s journey, having lost the Final season before winning the last campaign.
Chelsea don’t have the squad that is going to be able to sustain both a solid Premier League campaign and a Champions League campaign. It’s just not there from them, with such a reliance on some of their younger players and realistically players who should be moving on to pastures new. Their defence is a massive, massive problem.
Who are the Champions League 2019/20 Dark Horses?
Quite how Atletico Madrid are more than twice the price of Real Madrid to win the Champions League 2019/20 outright is a mystery. They are so smart with their signings, so forget what they have lost and focus on what they have brought in. They look more of a genuine threat than Real Madrid do. T
he question for them will be squad depth. A quote of 20/1 early is because they are in the same group as Juventus. That raises the chances of them not taking the top spot, but still, 20/1 is a fine each-way price* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:33 pm).
Bousiaa Dortmund look a much bigger danger than Bayern Munich do in this season’s competition. They have a more settled team, and if they can push on and build on the huge positives that they had in place last season, BVB could be one of the surprise packages of the tournament. Dortmund are 20/1 odds to win outright* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:33 pm).
Predictions
The main thing that pulls into focus is this. How long is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City going to be kept from the UEFA Champions League title? They have an easy group which they should win at a canter and can make a strong challenge. All of the setbacks in the last couple of years are likely to be ironed out. They are justifiable favourites.
Of the Spanish contenders, underdogs Atletico Madrid pique the most interest as Barcelona and Real Madrid don’t look to be too much above average. We’ll dismiss the chances of the latter two. There’s nothing special about PSG, Juventus or Bayern at all, who would all be capable of beating each other on the day.
You get the feeling that one injury could have a devastating blow to Liverpool’s title defence. Imagine if Virgil van Dijk went missing for a couple of months. Or Mo Salah. Or Sadio Mane. They don’t have replacements.
Manchester City on the other hand have quality in depth, the kind that the rest of the squads in the Champions League can only dream of. It’s Manchester City who gets the nod from us, with Atletico Madrid our dark horse pick* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:33 pm).
