The Champions League is full of war

At 2am on September 18 (Vietnam time), the highlight matches of the opening round of the new season's Champions League will take place at the same time, when a series of giants clash with each other.

Luis Diaz (center) is no stranger to facing Chelsea - Photo: REUTERS

Bayern Munich - Chelsea, Liverpool - Atletico Madrid and PSG - Atalanta will be the 3 matches that receive a lot of attention in this time slot.

Bayern Munich and Chelsea: who is stronger?

The special feature of the new competition format set by UEFA (from last season) is to ensure a nearly identical schedule for all teams. In the series of 8 matches in the group stage, each club will have to face 2 teams from each of the 4 seeding pots. This format makes it so that clubs do not care too much about which pot they are placed in.

And the interesting point of this format is the big battles that fill each round. Typically, in the first round, fans will witness a series of big battles including Bayern Munich - Chelsea, Liverpool - Atletico, Man City - Napoli, Newcastle - Barca...

The most evenly matched pair is obviously Bayern Munich - Chelsea. One side is the Bundesliga champion, always a stable force in European football. The other side is the FIFA Club World Cup champion.

Both are top European football teams, there is obviously no lack of fate between the two teams in the Champions League competitions, but what fans are looking forward to more right now is the fate between the star players as well as the coaching bench.

The reunion of British stars

When he played for Man City, Vincent Kompany was obviously no stranger to facing Chelsea. And at the moment, Chelsea looks the closest to the Chelsea team Kompany faced repeatedly between 2008 and 2019. In the hands of Enzo Maresca, Chelsea are now solid from midfield down, and full of speed on the wings, with a striker in form in Joao Pedro.

Not only Kompany, Bayern Munich is currently full of familiar stars of English football. There is Michael Olise - who made his name at Crystal Palace, Luis Diaz - who still plays for Liverpool last season, the famous captain Harry Kane, and of course, we cannot ignore the name Nicolas Jackson - who transferred from Chelsea in a complicated deal on the last day of the transfer window.

Bayern Munich's entire attack is familiar with Chelsea. And if you look at it from the opposite direction, Chelsea's defenders are also familiar with these stars. It is difficult to judge who will have an advantage.

Bayern Munich still have a slight advantage when playing at home. But in return, they are missing more stars with Musiala, Alphonso Davies and Guerreiro all injured. Chelsea are not far behind with Colwill, Delap and Essugo definitely absent, but in any case, none of them have a big impact on the game.

* Taking place at the same time is another fateful match, between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. The two teams have met four times in the past five years, with an equal head-to-head record of two wins and two losses for each team.

At the moment, Liverpool are considered to be the better team with the status of English champions and a team full of enthusiasm and no key players missing. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid have lost at least three key players: Baena, Gimenez and Almada, while Julian Alvarez is also not sure to recover from injury.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dai-chien-ngap-tran-champions-league-20250917083501485.htm