Barcelona is the second-favourites to win the tournament, but the Spanish champions’ past two European titles were in 2011 and 2015.
Both of Ernesto Valverde’s seasons in charge have ended with a Champions League implosion after a three-goal win – against Roma in the 2018 quarter-finals and then against Liverpool in the semi-finals earlier this year.
He has freshened things up, with the arrival of Frenchman Antoine Griezmann from Atletico Madrid and midfielder Frenkie de Jong from Ajax, as well as the emergence of wunderkind Ansu Fati. Superstar Lionel Messi is yet to play this season after injury, but he is in the squad for their opening game against Borussia Dortmund.
“He’s 32 and for the first time ever I have started hearing stories of people close to Messi saying: ‘How about if he has only got two more years at Barcelona,'” Spanish journalist Guillem Balague said. “I went into a panic… only two more years of Messi?
“We haven’t seen the best of Barcelona yet this season. It’s been a poor start but there is still time to get that corrected.”
Barcelona’s eternal rivals Real Madrid do not look in the best of shape so far. Zinedine Zidane is looking to win the Champions League for the fourth time as Real manager – he stepped down last summer after three in a row but came back in March, after their European exit.
However, his rebuild of the club has so far not materialized as planned. They spent over £200m on five players this summer, but Zidane had hoped for more – including midfielder Paul Pogba from Manchester United – and he was unable to move on some players he did not want, including forwarding Gareth Bale.
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In fact, none of their new signings started in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Levante, although Eden Hazard came off the bench for his debut.
“It must be a must-win month,” said Balague. “If things don’t go well in September we may be seeing a new coach, certainly by Christmas.
“It’s not just about results. Things have not worked as Zidane expected, and things are not working the way [president] Florentino Perez expected.
“There was going to be a revolution, Zidane said that himself last season. Instead, we have seen the same players. Out of all the new ones, only Eden Hazard will go straight into the line-up. Everybody else will be on the bench.”
A lot of observers are fascinated to know how the new-look Atletico Madrid get on this season.
Diego Simeone spent over £200m this summer and recouped even more in fees. Among the players to come in were Benfica forward Joao Felix (more on him later), Tottenham right-back Kieran Trippier, Real Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente and Espanyol defender Mario Hermoso.
Three of their famous back four left on free transfers – Diego Godin, Filipe Luis, and Juanfran – plus Griezmann to Barca, Rodri to Manchester City and Lucas Hernandez to Bayern Munich.
It is a decade since Atletico, who have never won the Champions League, have been eliminated in the knockout stages to a team not including Cristiano Ronaldo, who is in this season’s group stages with them. City rivals Real beat them in four consecutive years, including two finals. And last year Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Juventus overturned a 2-0 deficit in the last 16. That ended up being a big moment.
Balague said: “It had a bearing on the future and present of Atletico. For Simeone, that was confirmation the team needed to get rid of players like Godin and Juanfran. Now he’s got an exciting, very versatile team.”
Valencia, who play Chelsea in the opening game, seem to be going through a self-inflicted crisis. Just as things were looking good, they sacked the manager who got them into the Champions League and led them to the Copa del Rey last season – replacing Marcelino with Albert Celades last week.
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