favorites: chelsea-amazing Class And Talant That Needs The European Champianship. barcalona-with Hopefully Lionel Messi Playing Upfront And Starting More Could Become Serious Contenders. ac Milan-a Good Side But After Their 2nd Half Callopse Of The Final I Have Some Doubts. juventus-a Team With Real Class But Just Like Spain I See Another Choke. bayern Munchen-its Been A While Since A German Team Has Made An Impact, Along With Lahm, Ballack And Schweinsteiger They Should Be Taken Seriously. real Madrid-talented Players, Mixed Results, Ageing Former World Players You Just Never Know. darkhorses: villareal-probably One Of The Better Teams In La Liga And Certainly The Cl. inter Milan-my Pick As One Of The Most Underrated Teams In Europe. panathanikos-i Bet Your Saying What???? But They Are Class. lyon-diarra, Essien, Pedretti, Carew Very Strong Upfront And In The Midfield But Not Too Sure About The Defence. others: No English Team Except Chelsea I Feel Can Go The Distance. Liverpool Will Surely Fade Just As Porto While Man U And Arsenal Just Dont Cut The Mustard Like They Used To. Benfica, Porto, Shalcke, Wereder Bremen, Dynamo Kyiev Etc...will Try To Probably Play The Role Of Party Spiolers While Clubs Like Celtic, Anderlecht And Lille Will Probably Be Dead Horses. my Pick: Chelsea To Beat Inter Milan 3-2 In The Final.
What "pedigree" do Barcelona have in the CL? One victory? As I said, that's less of a pedigree than Nottingham Forest. What exactly has all this pedigree gotten Barcelona? Um, Chelsea brought back Crespo, bought a left back (something we lacked all season) and is likely to buy one more player. That's not particularly quiet. Compared to, say, Milan thus far? Jankulovsky, Vogel and Vieri, minus Dhorasoo and Crespo? Color me equally unimpressed. As for Madrid - aging stars and current River Plate defenders are a bad combination. Like what? What's this "pedigree" mean? They have multiple CL winners in the side. A coach who's won it before. A solid team that aside from Makelele is quite young. And I'm not saying they have to be "the" favorite. But what, right now, places Barcelona as greater favorites? Didn't the two teams play this season? How much did all that pedigree help Barca?
Barca? I never mentioned Barca. I had in mind teams like Milan and Madrid that always seem to make the final. I was just reading an interview with Gerrard where he spoke of how Liverpool's tradition--its pedigree--gives confidence and a certain level of expectation to its players. I don't think that is a hard idea to grant. Anyway Chelsea having twice the votes Milan have is definitely wrong, not only because Milan's CL record dwarfs Chelsea's, but because Milan have had a better transfer season. Adding Vieri and Jankulovski and Vogel is nothing to sniff at. Chelsea, by contrast, needed a killer striker and they didn't get the one they'd wanted. Did you read Gavin Hamilton in World Soccer? He had some interesting thoughts about Chelsea's transfer activities . . . I think it's on the web site now.
Pssst, I have to tell you something. Liverpool are NOT 'underdogs' anymore. They are current European Champions and are the 4th seeded team in Europe. They aren't underdogs this season my friend. Nobody will be relishing going to Anfield I can tell you that for sure. Liverpool will now start as favourites to beat ANY team at Anfield.
Used to?? Since when did Arsenal EVER cut the mustard in the CL? They've never been past the quarter final stage while Man Utd only ever managed 1 final in over 10 years of trying and have never been back there since.
Chelsea, Barca and AC Milan are the best ones. I don't think too much about Bayern but you can't tell with Bayern around. Juve will always be up there with the favourites to win it but the real question is, "Are they really serious contender for the trophy?" To me, they don't have enough hunger to win it. Why is Schalke on the poll? They are just making up the numbers. Even Sampdoria would have a better chance than them if they got the fourth spot in the Serie A instead of Udinese. Udinese on the other hand, will choke in the third qualifying round.
Me too and I'm a Juve fan. What makes them classy? What will make them go up there with their 1971, 1985 and 1996 sides?
Yup, but then the Porto team fell apart and was weakened. The manager and top players left. That isn't going to happen and won't happen to Liverpool. Liverpool will only get stronger.
The reason I wouldn't pick Liverpool to win the CL next year is simple. They now have a bullseye on their chest. It's very hard to win the European Cup back to back. And it has been impossible so far to do it in the CL. And if super squads like Milan, Real, Juve, etc couldn't do I think the odds of 'Pool doing it are even lower. Besides that, I think Liverpool might struggle in all competitions this year. They have a nice squad(not great) but they don't have the depth to compete in all competitions. And this lack of depth will be worse this year considering they have already started their CL campaign and they also have the World Club Cup in December. That's alot of games to play this year. And it's also a WC year so your gonna have some very tired players.
I wouldn't pick Liverpool to actually win it again either. I'm just pointing out that they are no longer 'underdogs' as was mentioned earlier. Like I said, nobody will fancy having to play Liverpool at Anfield. The fear factor of 'Fortress Anfield' is back amongst opposition teams, just like it used to be. It's one of the hardest and most intimidating stadiums in Europe to get a result at.
I think the term "underdog" is relative. If Liverpool plays Monaco, Shalke, Benfica, Betis, etc. they will be favorites. But if they play Chelsea, Juve, and Milan again they will still be underdogs.
I don't think there will be much of a 'favourite'/underdog' situation the next time Liverpool play Chelsea/Juventus etc over a two legged match. Chelsea/Juve etc weren't exactly HUGE favourites over Liverpool when they played them last season. I think it will be 50/50. Certainly nobody will now 'expect' Juve to eliminate Liverpool the next time they face each other. In fact, Liverpool will for example now be expected to defeat Juventus again the next time Juve come to Anfield. No team who is in the top 5 to 8 seeds (as Liverpool are) can be classed as 'underdogs' to win the competition.
I've saved your comment so that if PSV get to the semis again you can't claim you've always thought they'd do well.
Favourites are Chelsea, Barca and Milan. Much as I hate them I think Ajax might turn out to be this season's surprise package.
You may be correct in that surprise prediction. Ajax may have made the changes necessary to be a contender.
I think alot of teams will be nervous to go to anfield anytime soon because they have proved they are strong. Iam a liverpool fan who has to believe we will win it but it will be very difficult this year. I think benitez is building his team for the future . My bet would be on barcelona. As for robinho, come on madrid can't even play with the people they have so whats another so called superstar galacto going to do. Nothing as usual. Money doesn't always mean winning trophies does it ? Lyon look like they could go far , one of those sneaky french teams that come from nowwhere . interesting CL this season
I've been a Liverpool for 18 years and I really want to say Liverpool...but realistically I just can't see it happening again (this year at least). As was said earlier we just dont have enough depth, especially in defense. If Sami or Jamie get injured we have no decent cover. My money would be on either Chelsea or Barca, although I think Barca have a better chance than the Blues because they have no worldclass player up front. Sure Crespo did well for AC, but I honestly dont believe he will fit that well into the Chelsea squad. As an outside bet I would say AC Milan...but I dont think they are as good either Chelsea or Barca.
With Chelsea signing Wright-Phillips for 21m and about to sign Essien for 32m Chelsea look to have the best squad.
I´d rather wait another two or three seasons and not just be a surprise like in the 2002-2003 season but be a dominating factor. Winning the Cup comes after that, first some 3-0 wins against the likes of Juventus, Real Madrid or Milan.
Even though you are talking about Ajax. I know exactly what your talking about. PSV when they were against AC they weren't even expected to go that far, and then when they were actually against AC they played it off as David vs. Goliath. But PSV and Ajax are pretty good squads Feye should also be pretty good. After this coming World Cup the world will once again know that the Dutch are still awesome at soccer so their players will not be underated any more and will probably move to the likes of England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. And the ones that are left behind will be underrated until the next Euro or World Cup.