Two European champions, Real Madrid (14) and Bayern Munich (6) begin their participation in the Champions League today with new projects led by two English players, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, respectively, to compete against the powerful Premier League.
The protagonist
Star signing of the German champion, Harry Kane will make his debut with Bayern in the Champions League at the Allianz Arena and will do so against an old acquaintance, Manchester United.
The former Tottehnam player, who changed the Premier League for the Bundesliga in search of titles, does not have good memories of his duels against the ‘Red Devils’: in 19 games against United as a ‘Spurs’ player, the England captain only they won six and barely scored five goals.
But if there is a team that can help break this statistic, it is Bayern, which since the fateful 1999 Champions League final (2-1 English victory with a comeback in stoppage time), has only lost one game of the eight played against United and won all three quarter-final ties played.
Return to Germany
Another player who changed clubs this summer to win titles is the Englishman Jude Bellingham, who went from Borussia Dortmund to Real Madrid, with whom he will return to Germany today, but not to face his old club, but rather the more modest Unión Berlin, that debuts in the competition against the most successful team.
The start of Bellingham’s time with his new club could not have been better. The midfielder has scored 5 goals in as many league games and only came up blank last weekend, in the 2-1 victory against Real Sociedad.
After Karim Benzema’s departure to Saudi Arabia and without having replaced the Frenchman as a specific ‘9’, coach Carlo Ancelotti and the entire Real Madrid team entrusts itself to the effectiveness of the young English playmaker (20 years old) to try to win the 15th Cup of Europe.
The debut
Four-time continental champion with Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos returns to play in the top European club competition… with Sevilla.
The Andalusian team has won the Europa League seven times, the second most important tournament, but so far it has never managed to stand out in the Champions League.
The 37-year-old center back already made his debut with his training club last weekend in the 1-0 victory against Las Palmas, Sevilla’s first points this season in the Spanish championship, and the Andalusians will try to maintain the momentum at the start of Champions.
Framed in Group B, with Lens (its first rival), Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven, Ramos should lead Sevilla to at least qualify for the round of 16, but this is one of the keys with the most uncertain prognosis.
The return of a classic
Another of Sevilla’s rivals will be Arsenal, runners-up in the Premier League last season, which allowed them to return to the Champions League, a tournament in which they had not participated since the 2016-2017 season.
Led by Spanish coach Mikel Arteta and with a very young team, Arsenal is beginning to regain the prominence in English football that it had during the two decades under the command of Frenchman Arsene Wenger (1996-2018).
The players who stood out last season (Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli among others) have been joined this season by leading players in English football in recent seasons, such as the Spanish goalkeeper David Raya, the German striker Kai Havertz and, above all, the English midfielder Declan Rice, for whom the ‘Gunners’ have paid West Ham around 105 million pounds (a little more than 122 million euros or 137 million dollars), a record in football English.
Arsenal’s first rival (European runners-up in 2006) will be PSV, a team they already faced in the group stage last year in the Europa League, with a victory for each team.
The precedent
To begin its third participation in the Champions League (after 2003-2004 and 2013-2014), Real Sociedad will host the current runners-up, Inter Milan, today in Anoeta.
There is only one precedent in history for a confrontation between these two teams. It was in the first round of the UEFA Cup of the 1979-1980 season, with an Italian victory in the first leg by 3-0 and a Spanish victory in San Sebastián by 2-0, insufficient to overcome the tie.