Another European season begins with a familiar question hanging over the Champions League. Who can stop the teams that have made winning this competition look like a habit?
Paris Saint-Germain arrive as defending champions, having won the last two editions, and the standard against which everyone else will be measured. Real Madrid, the competition’s most decorated club, begin a new era under a returning Jose Mourinho, whose relationship with European football has never lacked drama. Arsenal remain determined to turn progress into a first Champions League crown, while Barcelona continue to possess the talent capable of making them irresistible if everything finally clicks.
But the Champions League is never just about the favourites. This season comes with no shortage of compelling subplots, from Jose Mourinho beginning his second spell at Real Madrid against his former club Inter Milan to Bayern Munich’s latest attempt to return to the summit of European football. Manchester United, meanwhile, are back in the competition after their absence in the last two seasons, bringing another of Europe’s traditional heavyweights into the mix.
There are new stories, too. Como will bring the Champions League to the shores of Lake Como. Sabah, founded only nine years ago, will walk into Old Trafford. LASK and Viking complete a quartet of newcomers, while Bodo/Glimt’s return alongside their Norwegian compatriots represents another remarkable step in the country’s footballing renaissance.
The 36-team league phase begins on Tuesday, September 8, with eight games standing between every club and the knockout rounds.
MOURINHO’S RETURN, MADRID’S EUROPEAN OBSESSION
There are few appointments in modern football capable of immediately changing the atmosphere around a club, and Mourinho’s return to Real Madrid is one of them.
Sixteen years after first arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mourinho is back at the club where he won La Liga but never secured the one prize Madrid measure themselves against more than any other. His first spell came shortly after leading Inter Milan to the Champions League title in 2010. He left Madrid without adding a third European Cup to his personal collection.
Much has changed since then.
Madrid have won six Champions League titles in a little over a decade, reinforcing their status as the competition’s ultimate specialists. But Mourinho’s task is not simply to inherit history. He returns to a club that has gone two seasons without major silverware and one that expects Kylian Mbappe’s presence to translate into trophies sooner rather than later.
Mourinho’s Madrid have already encountered an early setback domestically, but the Champions League has a way of resetting the mood around this club. Their opening fixture against Inter immediately gives the season emotional and historical weight.
Madrid’s league-phase schedule also leaves little room for complacency. Inter, Roma, RB Leipzig and Arsenal all await, with the trip to London in December standing out as one of the competition’s most intriguing early heavyweight encounters.
The question is whether Mourinho can add the Champions League to the list of unfinished business from his first Madrid spell. At a club with 15 European crowns, merely competing will never be enough.
CAN PSG DO THE THREE-PEAT?
Paris Saint-Germain are no longer chasing approval.
That is perhaps the biggest difference between this PSG side and the versions that spent years accumulating superstars while searching desperately for a first Champions League crown. They have crossed that threshold and then done it again.
The French champions begin the new campaign as having defended the European crown twice and with the opportunity to pursue a third consecutive title.
For years, PSG’s European story was defined by pressure, expectation and painful near-misses. The club had the money, the players and the ambition, but the Champions League remained frustratingly beyond reach. That has changed.
Now, for the first time, PSG enter the competition with the burden of being the team everyone wants to knock off the throne.
A third straight title would elevate this side beyond simply being a successful modern team. It would place PSG in the conversation with the great European dynasties.
That is an enormous challenge, particularly in a competition where the margins become increasingly narrow as the season progresses. A poor night, a suspension, an injury or a momentary lapse in concentration can undo months of excellent work.
Yet PSG have already demonstrated that they know how to survive those moments.
They have shown they can win the Champions League. They have shown they can retain it. The next question is whether they can establish the kind of dominance that few clubs in European football have ever managed.
CAN GUNNERS GO ONE STEP FURTHER?
Arsenal’s Champions League journey has increasingly become a test of whether progress can eventually become silverware, at least in Europe.
The Gunners have spent recent seasons rebuilding their status among Europe’s elite and have come close enough to understand both the scale of the opportunity and the pain of falling short.
Now comes the more difficult part: returning with the expectation of going further.
There is a difference between being an exciting contender and being a champion. Arsenal are attempting to cross that line.
Their squad has developed, their European experience has grown and they no longer enter major continental fixtures as outsiders hoping to cause an upset. They belong in the conversation.
But the Champions League demands more than quality over a handful of games. It demands consistency, resilience and the ability to survive moments when the football is not going your way.
Arsenal’s challenge is as much psychological as tactical. The best teams in this competition develop an ability to handle the decisive moments — the difficult away nights, the narrow leads to protect and the occasions when the game becomes chaotic.
That experience cannot simply be bought or coached into existence overnight. It has to be earned.
The opportunity, however, is obvious.
Arsenal do not need to convince Europe that they are capable of competing with the best anymore. The next challenge is proving they can beat them when everything is on the line.
CAN BARCA FLICK THE SWITCH?
Barcelona remain one of the most fascinating teams in the competition because their potential has rarely been in question.
The question, instead, is whether they can consistently access it.
There are moments when Barcelona look capable of overwhelming almost anyone. Their attacking quality, technical ability and capacity to dominate possession give them a ceiling few sides can match.
But a Champions League campaign is not won on isolated brilliance but through sustained excellence across months of football.
That is where Barcelona’s challenge lies. They have the talent to produce spectacular performances, but Europe’s biggest competition demands consistency. The teams that lift the trophy are usually those capable of adapting to different opponents and surviving different kinds of matches.
Barcelona’s best football can be irresistible. The challenge is ensuring that their best version does not appear only in flashes.
For Barcelona, this campaign is about turning promise into authority.
They have the players and pedigree to be among Europe’s last teams standing. But potential is a currency that eventually expires if it is not converted into something tangible.
The Champions League has always been the competition that reveals exactly where a team stands.
For Barcelona, the answer may depend on whether they can finally flick the switch and stay there.
THE MOURINHO-MADRID-INTER REUNION
If the Champions League wanted a dramatic opening act, it could hardly have written a better one.
Mourinho first arrived at Real Madrid in 2010 after leaving Inter Milan at the peak of one of the greatest achievements of his managerial career.
He had delivered the Champions League title to the Italian club and departed as a European champion.
Sixteen years later, he is back in Madrid and begins his second Champions League campaign as Real coach against Inter at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Mourinho still has the same two Champions League titles he had when he first arrived in Spain: the 2004 triumph with Porto and the 2010 victory with Inter.
The road to a third begins against one of the clubs most closely associated with his European legacy.
There is another connection.
Inter are now led by Cristian Chivu, one of Mourinho’s players from the 2010 Champions League-winning side.
That makes the fixture more than an ordinary opening-night contest. It is a collision between different stages of Mourinho’s footballing life.
Inter are also one of several clubs in this Champions League edition that Mourinho has previously coached, underlining the extraordinary reach of a career that has taken him across Portugal, England, Italy and Spain.
For one night, however, the past and present meet in Madrid.
CAN THE UCL HEAD TO MUNICH?
Bayern Munich are never far from the Champions League conversation.
That is both their strength and, in recent years, their frustration.
The German champions remain one of Europe’s most formidable institutions, possessing the resources, experience and winning culture required to compete with anyone. But there is a difference between regularly reaching the decisive stages and actually lifting the trophy.
Bayern know that distinction better than most.
They remain a team capable of beating anyone on their day, but the Champions League does not reward reputation. Every season begins with the same requirement: build momentum, survive the difficult moments and peak when the knockout rounds arrive.
For Bayern, the challenge is crossing the final stretch.
They have remained close enough to the summit to keep expectations high, but European history remembers winners, not nearly-men.
Bayern have the pedigree to make another deep run. They have the players and institutional experience to navigate the competition.
Whether they can turn that into another European crown is the question that will follow them throughout the season.
CAN CITY GET BACK TO THEIR BEST?
Manchester City’s relationship with the Champions League has changed dramatically over the past decade.
They are no longer newcomers trying to establish themselves among Europe’s elite. They have reached the summit before and have become a permanent presence in the latter stages of the competition.
But European football remains uniquely unforgiving.
City’s domestic consistency has often made them one of the world’s most reliable teams, yet the Champions League presents a different kind of challenge.
One poor half can transform an entire season.
The question for City is not whether they have enough talent. They always do.
It is whether they can find the rhythm and ruthlessness required to navigate the competition when the margins become microscopic.
The Champions League is as much about timing as quality. A team can look unstoppable in September and be exhausted by April. Another can struggle through the early stages before finding its best form at exactly the right moment.
City know both sides of that reality.
They have already experienced the ultimate success in Europe. But the challenge now is rediscovering the path to it in a competition that never allows a club to rely on what it achieved yesterday.
THE RED DEVILS RETURN
Manchester United’s return to the Champions League carries its own sense of restoration.
For a club of United’s scale, European nights are not meant to be occasional events.
Old Trafford was built to stage them.
The new campaign begins with one of the more remarkable fixtures of the opening round: Sabah’s first Champions League game, at Old Trafford, against a United side coached by Michael Carrick.
Carrick’s presence adds another interesting layer to the occasion.
He was Mourinho’s captain at Manchester United when Sabah was founded in Azerbaijan in 2017. Nine years later, he finds himself leading United into the Champions League against the club.
There is a broader significance, though.
United’s presence restores another historic name to the competition. The club’s European identity has been shaped by triumphs, disasters and some of the most memorable nights in Champions League history.
Their return comes with expectations, but also uncertainty. The modern Champions League is an unforgiving environment, and reputation alone counts for nothing.
Whether this new chapter can eventually match the standards of United’s greatest European sides remains to be seen.
For now, simply being back is an important first step.
THE NEW FACES
The Champions League’s appeal has always extended beyond its established giants. Every season also brings stories of clubs stepping onto European football’s biggest stage for the first time, and this year’s competition welcomes four debutants: Sabah, Como, LASK and Viking.
Sabah FK: From Azerbaijan to Old Trafford
The most striking debut belongs to Sabah.
Founded in 2017, the Azerbaijani club will make its Champions League bow less than a decade after coming into existence, beginning with a daunting trip to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The fixture carries an unexpected historical connection. Jose Mourinho was United manager when Sabah was founded, while Michael Carrick captained his side. Nine years later, Carrick is United’s coach and preparing to lead the club against one of Europe’s newest Champions League entrants.
For Sabah, the journey itself is remarkable. A club barely a decade old will suddenly find itself competing against institutions with generations of European history behind them.
Como: Europe’s most picturesque newcomer
Few Champions League settings will be as distinctive as Como’s Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium.
Situated on the shores of Lake Como and coached by Cesc Fabregas, Como’s arrival in Europe’s premier competition is one of the season’s most intriguing stories. Their debut comes at home to RB Leipzig, bringing Champions League football to one of Italy’s most picturesque venues.
But there is substance behind the scenery. Under Fabregas, Como have emerged as one of Italian football’s most ambitious modern projects, and their European debut represents another significant step in the club’s rapid rise.
LASK, Viking and Norway’s renaissance
Austria’s LASK complete the quartet of debutants after a stunning turnaround against Celtic in the play-offs, while Viking arrive after winning their first Norwegian league title in 34 years.
Viking’s qualification also reflects a broader resurgence in Norwegian football.
Norway had no Champions League representative for 18 years until Bodo/Glimt broke through last season. Now Viking have joined the club from inside the Arctic Circle, giving the country two representatives in Europe’s biggest club competition.
The rise at club level follows Norway’s recent World Cup renaissance, where the national team reached the quarterfinals in its first appearance at the tournament for 28 years.
For Viking and Bodo/Glimt, the Champions League represents another indication of how far Norwegian football has come.
The giants will dominate the headlines, as they always do. PSG are chasing history, Real Madrid begin another European campaign under Mourinho, while Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Manchester United each arrive with ambitions of their own.
But clubs such as Sabah, Como, LASK, Viking and Bodo/Glimt offer a reminder of what makes the Champions League unique. For all its wealth and established power, there is still room for new names and unfamiliar stories on Europe’s biggest stage.
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