Uefa Champions League Matchday 1 Preview and Prediction
The novelty of the 2024/25 Champions League is almost overwhelming, with the all-new iteration of UEFA's premier club competition kicking off this week.
Group stages are no more with a 'Swiss model' taking hold. With 36 teams now competing in a 'league phase', each matchday (barring the last) will consist of 18 games spread over three days.
The abundance of action will undoubtedly test Wi-Fi connections across the globe with multiple screens surely coming out to play to ensure as much as possible of Matchday 1 is caught live.
This should be a lot of fun, and here's how we reckon the first week of league phase action will pan out.
Manchester City vs Inter Prediction: Champions League Match Preview
Manchester City meet Inter in their opening Champions League match and will be looking to make a strong start to their campaign against the side they beat to win their first title in the competition in 2023.
Pep Guardiola’s team have made a perfect start to their latest Premier League title defence, earning four wins from four, including a 2-1 comeback win over Brentford in their last outing to remain top of the league.
Inter, on the other hand, have had contrasting fortunes. They may have made an unbeaten start to the campaign (W2 D2), but Simone Inzaghi was frustrated after a wasteful performance almost cost them against Monza on Sunday.
He will be hoping that a positive start to the Champions League will settle some of the early nerves, though they do have one of the more difficult fixture lists, with RB Leipzig, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen among their slate of eight matches in the revamped group stage.
However, Inter are not known for fast starts in the Champions League, having only begun one of their last nine campaigns with a win, beating Tottenham 2-1 in 2018-19 (D5 L3).
Their record of three losses in their last 20 matches in the competition (W11 D6) may look strong on paper, but it is nothing compared to their hosts.
Excluding penalty shootouts, City are unbeaten in their last 23 games in the Champions League (W16 D7), and a win on Wednesday would put them within one match of equalling the longest unbeaten streak by a team in European Cup/Champions League history (25 games by local rivals Manchester United in September 2007-May 2009).
And with Guardiola at the helm, you would not put it past them. Among managers to oversee 50+ games in the competition, the Spaniard has the highest win percentage at 63.7% (109 wins in 171 games).
Erling Haaland has surpassed even his highest expectations, with a lightning-quick start to the season. He has scored 41 goals in 39 appearances in the Champions League to date, and if he scores in this game, it will be his 100th strike overall for the club.
Manchester City vs Inter Head-to-Head
The only previous European encounter between City and Inter was in the 2023 Champions League final, which the Citizens won 1-0 thanks to a Rodri goal.
It was a close contest in Istanbul, with Inter squandering several late opportunities to send the match to extra-time.
Inter have won away at four different English teams in the Champions League (Newcastle, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool). They could become the fourth team to win at 5+ English teams, after Barcelona (seven), Real Madrid (five) and Bayern Munich (five).
While City have never faced Inter on home soil before, they went unbeaten across all five of their matches at the Etihad in the Champions League last season, winning all three in the group stage.
PREDICTION: HOME TO WIN @1.49
Atalanta vs Arsenal Prediction: Champions League Match Preview
Arsenal head to Bergamo on Thursday for their Champions League opener against Atalanta fresh off the back of a crucial Premier League victory at the weekend.
Mikel Arteta’s side start the restructured competition on the road, buoyed with confidence after Sunday’s hard-fought 1-0 victory away to fierce rivals Tottenham.
Gabriel Magalhães headed home the second-half winner at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, sending Arsenal on their travels with an impressive victory that reinstated their early season title credentials.
Arteta’s men reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League last term, though a different challenge awaits in 2024-25 with teams playing eight other sides – four home and four away – as all 36 clubs battle in a single league table for the group stage.
Heading into UEFA’s revamped format, Arsenal have won their opening match in each of their last six major European campaigns (five in the UEFA Europa League and last season’s Champions League).
The last side to beat Arsenal in their first game was Dinamo Zagreb in the 2015-16 Champions League, though last season’s Europa League winners will fancy their chances at home in their curtain-raiser.
A 3-0 victory in last campaign’s Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen was Atalanta head coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s 50th game in charge of the club in major European competition (excluding qualifiers). The veteran boss has won just under half of those (48%), with 24 victories (D14 L12).
Ademola Lookman will be one to watch out for, having scored five times in his final three Europa League starts last season – including a hat-trick in the showpiece against Leverkusen. He also scored the winner this past weekend as Atalanta overcame Fiorentina 3-2.
Lookman’s never scored in four prior appearances against Arsenal, however, while his only Champions League appearance was in October 2019 for RB Leipzig against Zenit.
Goals could be on the cards, too, given Atalanta’s last four games in this competition – all in the 2021-22 group stage – saw both teams score two or more times each (D2 L2). Having said that, in the entire history of the European Cup, no side has ever both scored and conceded 2+ goals in five consecutive matches.
Atalanta vs Arsenal Head-to-Head
A revamped competition brings fresh meetings aplenty, with this the first time Atalanta and Arsenal have ever competed against each other.
Arteta’s away side will be the fifth English team Atalanta have met in major European competition, after Everton (W2), Man City (D1 L1), Liverpool (W2 L2) and Man Utd (D1 L1).
However, Arsenal have lost their last three away Champions League games in Italy, suffering defeats against Roma (1-0 in 2009), Milan (4-0 in 2012) and Napoli (2-0 in 2013).
The Napoli loss was Arsenal’s last such trip to Italy, however, with Arteta’s new-look Gunners aiming to atone for previous failures on their next quest for European success.
PREDICTION: OVER 1.5 GOALS @1.25
Bologna vs Shakhtar Donetsk: OVER 1.5 @1.31
Sparta Praha vs Red Bull Salzburg: BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE @1.48
Celtic vs ŠK Slovan Bratislava: HOME TO WIN @1.22
Paris Saint-Germain vs Girona FC: HOME TO WIN @1.33
Club Brugge KV vs Borussia Dortmund: 2 DNB @1.46
FK Crvena zvezda vs Benfica: AWAY WIN OR DRAW @1.25
Feyenoord vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen: 2 DNB @1.31
AS Monaco vs Barcelona: BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE @1.44
Atlético Madrid vs RB Leipzig: 1 DNB @1.31
