What can we expect from the English sides in the Champions League?

Author: Jack Guing, Last Updated: 18.09.2024

4 teams from the English Premier League have qualified for the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League. These teams are Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa. Each of these teams will fancy their chances of going far in this season's UEFA Champions League. Man City and Liverpool have both won the Champions League over the last 5 years with Man City winning it for the first time in 2023 and Liverpool winning their 6th title in 2019. Arsenal have never won the Champions League while Aston Villa won the then called European Cup in 1982. Let’s take a look at the new Champions League format as well as a preview for each English team in the competition.

Champions League Format

The 2024/2025 Champions League has adopted a new format than seen in years previous. The previous Champions League group stage included 32 participants divided into eight groups of four. From the 2024/25 season, 36 clubs will now participate in the Champions League league phase (former group stage), giving four more sides the opportunity to compete against the best clubs in Europe. Those 36 clubs will participate in a single league competition in which all 36 competing clubs are ranked together.

Under the new format, teams will play eight matches in the new league phase (former group stage). They will no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face fixtures against eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away. 24 teams will make it through to the knockout stages with the top 8 sides going straight into the last 16 while the teams who finish from 9th-24th going into a two legged playoff round to complete the rest of the Last 16. From there it will follow previous years, with two legged matches occurring in the Last 16, Quarter Final, Semi Finals before a one off final.

Manchester City

Manchester City head into this UEFA Champions League season as one of the favourites to lift the trophy for the second time. Man City begin their Champions League on Wednesday 18th September when they host Inter Milan in a repeat of the 2023 final, where they won 1-0. Their other 7 games are Slovan Bratislava (away), Sparta Prague (home), Sporting CP (away), Feyenoord (home), Juventus (away), PSG (home) and Club Brugge (home). Man City will be well positioned to finish in the top 8 of the Champions League phase and go straight through to the Last 16 of the Champions League.

Arsenal

Arsenal will also be among one of the favourites to win the Champions League, a trophy they have failed to win in their history. Arsenal made it to the Quarter Finals last season, losing to Bayern Munich over two legs. They begin their campaign away to Atalanta on Thursday 19th September. Their other 7 league phase fixtures are PSG (home), Shakhtar (home), Inter (away), Sporting CP (away), Monaco (home), GNK Dinamo (home) and Girona (away). Arsenal have a few tricky games in their league phase but I think they will have enough to finish in the top 8 and go straight through to the Last 16.

Liverpool

Liverpool make their return to the UEFA Champions League after a year's absence and their European pedigree will certainly give them an advantage over the other English teams. They begin their campaign away to AC Milan on Tuesday 17th September. Their other 7 fixtures are Bologna (home), Leipzig (away), Leverkusen (home), Real Madrid (home), Girona (away), Lille (home) and PSV (away). Liverpool have some tricky games particularly in the early weeks of the Champions League but I do believe they will finish in the top 8 of the league phase.

Aston Villa

This will be Aston Villa’s first time competing into the UEFA Champions League since the name was changed from the European Cup. They do have European pedigree, winning the 1982 European Cup. They begin their campaign away to Young Boys. Their other 7 games are Bayern Munich (home), Bologna (home), Club Brugge (away), Juventus (home), Leipzig (away), Monaco (away) and Celtic (home). This will be a great experience for Aston Villa but they do have what it takes to make it to the knockout stages. I think they will finish between 9th-24th place and make it to the playoffs for the Last 16.

The 4 English sides are all strong and are capable of going far in the UEFA Champions League, especially Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool who I expect to go very far in the competition.

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✒️ Jack Guing – Football and GAA Sports Expert

Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.