UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season

[TastyChillySauce00]

I see there are a lot of surprises in UCL. So maybe it can happen. But I feel confident with a team with good stats in the League and UCL is the favourite to be champion. Especially they're strong teams like Man City, Bayern, Madrid, they are my favourites for the champions this season.
But sometimes these strong teams don't play in the final and this makes the final too boring. It happened last year's final Man City vs Inter. So I hope the draw will make the strong teams meet in the semi-final phase. Not in the knockout phase at the beginning.

I predict this season will be a battle between teams from La Liga vs teams from the Premier League because so far these teams are more promising, what I'm worried about is that each of them will fight each other in the quarter-finals so that it will reduce their dominance in the next round while teams from the Bundesliga can still compete but are not sure they can reach the final. Do you think there is potential for another team to make a surprise like the underdog team? we had several teams that finished as runners up in the group for example Copenhagen or Inter Milan as one of the finalists last year, so far we cannot predict how this team will play but the opportunity is of course still open.

We have seen 2 candidates from EPL hve already eliminated and more to come soon. La liga is still sending lots of candidates available for now. Please, don't underestimate serie a team as well. I remind you that if the final last season was between EPL and serie a teams.
La liga has been failed before it was able reaching the final. I think that you shall not underestimate teams from the other league. It's caused by any teams have chances to win the UCL this season.

if we are talking about which clubs that may become most potential teams to win the game then la liga teams or EPL teams are having biggest probability but serie a will be only slightly less than it too.
Serie a team was very strong. I remember that when serie a clubs were destroying EPL. Anything is possible to happen in the football. It's caused by sometimes even the small club can dominate the big club too.

I refrain myself from calling teams from other leagues than EPL and la liga as weak teams.

[1714697707]

1714697707

[Webetcoins]

I don’t wish for the final to come too early as it happened last season when the match between Real Madrid and Manchester City was played at the semifinals matchup. It was very obvious that any team that won between those two in the semifinals will be the champions league winners and that was what happened after Manchester City eliminated Real Madrid from the semifinal. I can’t say for now which league teams will make it to the final just yet. The elimination stage draws will decide more on which team would make it far in this competition before getting to the final stage of the competition.

Well, whatever happens, I hope Real Madrid is not the team that will get knocked out of the semi-finals. I want Real Madrid to reach the finals. Because without Real Madrid, instead of the times it is generally not very fun watching the final of the Champions League. I want to see Real Madrid in the finals because they can do some amazing things. Amazing comebacks that generally other teams might not be able to do. Manchester City is not performing well in the English Premier League right now. I wonder if they will be able to continue performing well in the Champions League. Whatever happens on the other end, I want Real Madrid to be in the final.

There is no doubt about this Real Madrid and Champions League is one of the best love affair in sports history and every time they break many hearts for having their spot into last four so we can expect another good season for them here in this event with their performance is much better than expectations with in early matches mostly were feeling they are lacking quality striker but now after having top spot without losing any game peoples are having different view about them, and currently they are hot for winning this title in this season.

Currently, any prediction is going to be not perfect with any team can reach into last four but after watching performance of Real Madrid most chances they will be having another last four season and going to win it's also possible but still challenging job for the all super fit top teams.

[dezoel]

I think everyone has similar thoughts about PSG. What I will point out will be more interesting. So, if PSG surprises this year and reaches the semi-finals or finals, will this success be Enrique's success? Maybe if such a thing happens, Mbappe will stay in the team and with a few great transfers, PSG will be one of the favorites next year. This probability is very low, but what if it happens? That's when PSG can catch fire again.

Even every thing is possible in this sport but as PSG is performing I have doubt as they can reach into last eight most chances their journey is going to be ended in this round which could be another poor end for them, they need some time for having mentality and performance for having this trophy and it's never been easy currently their squad having few players which are going to have good future but this all needs some more time Mbappé future is also not clear with we can expect Victor Osimhen can join here in coming season as well.

Luis Enrique is good coach, and he can create good things here in this club as well, but it needs some more time which will allow him for bringing best from the players and also working on mind-set is also important without these changes they can't win this trophy.

[asriloni]

I see there are a lot of surprises in UCL. So maybe it can happen. But I feel confident with a team with good stats in the League and UCL is the favourite to be champion. Especially they're strong teams like Man City, Bayern, Madrid, they are my favourites for the champions this season.
But sometimes these strong teams don't play in the final and this makes the final too boring. It happened last year's final Man City vs Inter. So I hope the draw will make the strong teams meet in the semi-final phase. Not in the knockout phase at the beginning.

I predict this season will be a battle between teams from La Liga vs teams from the Premier League because so far these teams are more promising, what I'm worried about is that each of them will fight each other in the quarter-finals so that it will reduce their dominance in the next round while teams from the Bundesliga can still compete but are not sure they can reach the final. Do you think there is potential for another team to make a surprise like the underdog team? we had several teams that finished as runners up in the group for example Copenhagen or Inter Milan as one of the finalists last year, so far we cannot predict how this team will play but the opportunity is of course still open.

That's only happening once the candidates from EPL will not be leaving from the UCL. I mean if manchester city is underperform in the domestic league and im not really sure if manchester city will able to manage it to go to the final again like last season.
Look at how poor the performance of manchester city this time. It's very different compared to the last season when city was still able dominating everythitng in UCL. Missing lots of important players were making manchester city played differently.
The chance of manchester city to repeat the same result as last season is decreasing a lot compared when the UCL was starting. Manchester city is having so many problems in the club.

Pep is working to sort this problem out but it can happen once the club will able to recruit a good defender for manchester city. City was not playing like last season. Anyone who regularly watched the gameplay of city would be understand it.
Manchester city may also out from UCL in upcoming stage. It's likely city will get a strong opponent.

[piebeyb]

Pep is working to sort this problem out but it can happen once the club will able to recruit a good defender for manchester city. City was not playing like last season. Anyone who regularly watched the gameplay of city would be understand it.
Manchester city may also out from UCL in upcoming stage. It's likely city will get a strong opponent.

Yes, that's what happens, Guardiola should realize that there are shortcomings in the front line as well as in their back line which is not good and a bit weak so they often concede goals. I think if this continues it will make it difficult for Manchester City to catch up to win the EPL title. in this season because the points gap is quite large now from several top clubs in the EPL.

The domestic league is not very good and I am sure that they will not play better in the UCL either, we know that in group G they did not find difficult opponents there so qualifying is very easy for them, but this is where the real test is when they qualify for group 1 in the next round of the round of 16 their ability will be questioned whether they as defending champions will make it to the final whereas in the domestic league they played very badly.

[Weawant]

I predict this season will be a battle between teams from La Liga vs teams from the Premier League because so far these teams are more promising, what I'm worried about is that each of them will fight each other in the quarter-finals so that it will reduce their dominance in the next round while teams from the Bundesliga can still compete but are not sure they can reach the final. Do you think there is potential for another team to make a surprise like the underdog team? we had several teams that finished as runners up in the group for example Copenhagen or Inter Milan as one of the finalists last year, so far we cannot predict how this team will play but the opportunity is of course still open.

Your prediction seem to almost be coming true because currently just like you did stated it's mostly la Liga teams and the English teams that are dominant in the UCL currently and really looks very promising in Winning the UCL because their performance aswell is such that it's also a very competitive and contending.

I doubt if the underdog teams will be able to do anything to displace any of the bigger teams who are already experienced and have great potential for the title this season. Copenhagen although they did performed well at the group stage, but I doubt if they will be able to contend at this stage because it's obvious they are just an average team in the UCL and we're lucky that there were in a group that was less challenging than it will be in the round of sixteen and beyond, the German team may be able to make it up to the semi finals but I doubt if they have the experience beyond that stage.

[Hanadawa]

Last season not really excited drawing champion league match with many strong team like Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have to face each other before final stage. I hope few hours later with drawing get balance between strong teams not have to face early on quarter final and excited will be in semifinal or final round. I agree with your opinion, if strong teams have to face on quarter final phase will make boring final stage because not strong teams will play in the final.
I hope between Real Madrid and Manchester City will not face until semifinal phase and both teams get draw will play until final stage if can win from knock out round until semifinal phase.

I think everyone also hopes for something like that. We hope that the strong teams will not meet early because the atmosphere will be less exciting. If you look at the runners up this season, PSG, Inter and PSV are among the strong teams that will definitely meet a strong team from the group winners. I don't know if the rules have changed, but as far as I know, each pool is filled with the champion from each group and the other pool is filled with the runner up from each group.

[Justbillywitt]

~Snip~

I think everyone has similar thoughts about PSG. What I will point out will be more interesting. So, if PSG surprises this year and reaches the semi-finals or finals, will this success be Enrique's success? Maybe if such a thing happens, Mbappe will stay in the team and with a few great transfers, PSG will be one of the favorites next year. This probability is very low, but what if it happens? That's when PSG can catch fire again.

It is very easy for PSG to dominate Ligue 1 and dominate other domestic competencies with the top players they buy every time the transfer window opens, but winning the Champions League is not as easy as buying players. In fact, PSG was only able to advance to the last 16 in the last seven seasons, they reached the final in the 2019/2020 season, then in the following season their progress stopped in the semifinals.

This season the PSG squad is under the guidance of Luis Enrique who has experience in the UCL, but their inconsistent performance makes their journey very difficult when facing big teams. I don't think PSG can surprise this season, they qualified for the round of 16 due to luck after fighting hard in the group stage.

This season's UCL trophy is not for PSG, there are still other strong teams who always perform consistently who are better prepared to fight for the trophy. Luis Enrique must develop a strategy with a more solid team strength if he wants to bring PSG to the UCL trophy.

PSG are not yet ready to win the champoins league. The French league is not that competitive and the strongest team PSG struggled with Newcastle and other teams in their group. If they make it pass the round of 16 this season I think they are lucky. It will take PSG many years of consistency to win the Champions league, they should forget about it this season.

[Oluwa-btc]

Pep is working to sort this problem out but it can happen once the club will able to recruit a good defender for manchester city. City was not playing like last season. Anyone who regularly watched the gameplay of city would be understand it.
Manchester city may also out from UCL in upcoming stage. It's likely city will get a strong opponent.

Yes, that's what happens, Guardiola should realize that there are shortcomings in the front line as well as in their back line which is not good and a bit weak so they often concede goals. I think if this continues it will make it difficult for Manchester City to catch up to win the EPL title. in this season because the points gap is quite large now from several top clubs in the EPL.

The domestic league is not very good and I am sure that they will not play better in the UCL either, we know that in group G they did not find difficult opponents there so qualifying is very easy for them, but this is where the real test is when they qualify for group 1 in the next round of the round of 16 their ability will be questioned whether they as defending champions will make it to the final whereas in the domestic league they played very badly.

Do you know that in the last six Premier League games, they have conceded a total of twelve league goals. The defense is something that needs to be looked at closey. Has anyone monitored Gvardiol Josko? Why do I feel like he's a big flop for Manchester City this season?
They have some difficulty with scoring goals because Erling Haaland can't create for himself, he needs the support of the midfielder's to support him.

How they play in the Premier League will definitely reflect on how they play in the Champions League. They have time though to fix themselves successfully in the Champions League. They will resume that Competition next year. Before the start, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland should be back completely ready.

[hyudien]

It is very easy for PSG to dominate Ligue 1 and dominate other domestic competencies with the top players they buy every time the transfer window opens, but winning the Champions League is not as easy as buying players. In fact, PSG was only able to advance to the last 16 in the last seven seasons, they reached the final in the 2019/2020 season, then in the following season their progress stopped in the semifinals.

This season the PSG squad is under the guidance of Luis Enrique who has experience in the UCL, but their inconsistent performance makes their journey very difficult when facing big teams. I don't think PSG can surprise this season, they qualified for the round of 16 due to luck after fighting hard in the group stage.

This season's UCL trophy is not for PSG, there are still other strong teams who always perform consistently who are better prepared to fight for the trophy. Luis Enrique must develop a strategy with a more solid team strength if he wants to bring PSG to the UCL trophy.

This is still a problem and difficult for PSG to avoid because they with the power of star players even when there are Messi, Mbappe and Neymar also cannot promise to celebrate the UCL trophy. So we can conclude that UCL is not about a club full of stars, but about the mentality of all players, teamwork and what usually gives the most plus points is experience many times and understands how the atmosphere of competition in UCL. All of that PSG needs to have if they want to win the UCL, after several attempts until now it has not been fulfilled. Being able to dominate the Domestic League does not guarantee the same thing in the UCL, PSG still has to face teams with different strengths, mentality and cross-domestic clubs.

[topbitcoin]

I think everyone has similar thoughts about PSG. What I will point out will be more interesting. So, if PSG surprises this year and reaches the semi-finals or finals, will this success be Enrique's success? Maybe if such a thing happens, Mbappe will stay in the team and with a few great transfers, PSG will be one of the favorites next year. This probability is very low, but what if it happens? That's when PSG can catch fire again.

It is very easy for PSG to dominate Ligue 1 and dominate other domestic competencies with the top players they buy every time the transfer window opens, but winning the Champions League is not as easy as buying players. In fact, PSG was only able to advance to the last 16 in the last seven seasons, they reached the final in the 2019/2020 season, then in the following season their progress stopped in the semifinals.

This season the PSG squad is under the guidance of Luis Enrique who has experience in the UCL, but their inconsistent performance makes their journey very difficult when facing big teams. I don't think PSG can surprise this season, they qualified for the round of 16 due to luck after fighting hard in the group stage.

This season's UCL trophy is not for PSG, there are still other strong teams who always perform consistently who are better prepared to fight for the trophy. Luis Enrique must develop a strategy with a more solid team strength if he wants to bring PSG to the UCL trophy.

The situation is still the same as before. PSG does have a very good dominance in Ligue 1 but the farm league competition cannot be compared with the Champions League because after all, looking at the current situation, PSG can still dominate with their money power but for the Champions League they remain the same as other clubs and indeed there are still even some clubs that are stronger than PSG in the competition in the Champions League.
The fact that they are also sometimes not too favored in the group phase or drawing makes them always lose momentum, especially in these 3 seasons when in the previous 2 season they were troubled and had to fail in the knock out phase because they had to lose to Madrid and Manchester City.
This season is also almost the same when they have started to be troubled in the group phase which must indeed be in a hell group that makes them difficult and it isnt  impossible for them this season to find a troublesome club also in the last 16.

The Champions League trophy is not something that is easy to get even though maybe PSG still has a small chances  to be able to get it but they have to work harder if they are really serious because this is not ligue 1 that they can conquer easily. 

[Republikcoin.com]

This is still a problem and difficult for PSG to avoid because they with the power of star players even when there are Messi, Mbappe and Neymar also cannot promise to celebrate the UCL trophy. So we can conclude that UCL is not about a club full of stars, but about the mentality of all players, teamwork and what usually gives the most plus points is experience many times and understands how the atmosphere of competition in UCL. All of that PSG needs to have if they want to win the UCL, after several attempts until now it has not been fulfilled. Being able to dominate the Domestic League does not guarantee the same thing in the UCL, PSG still has to face teams with different strengths, mentality and cross-domestic clubs.

It is not easy to build a team to be able to win the UCL or compete fiercely with top European teams, as Manchester City only managed to win the UCL after a long process they went through to build the framework or foundation of the team so they could compete in the race for the UCL title.

While PSG currently does not have such criteria even though they have many star players, there is nothing instant in building all teams, everything has to go through a long process and PSG does not carry out that process.

[Rampagoe004]

Dembele is also a great player, although Mbappe is much better known as a world striker. PSG also once had a number of world star players at the club, but they also failed to become champion candidates. Luis Enrique needs to build a better squad and must prioritize collectivity over individual skill and he needs to learn a lot from what Pep Guardiola did at Manchester City because their squad is also not strengthened by world star players.

City is a great club. But this season they seem to be having difficulties when their main players are injured. This can be seen from their last 5 matches when Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne suffered injuries. I'm afraid they won't be able to go further in the champions league this season. And for PSG I agree with what you said that they only have Mbappe as a world class striker although I also don't underestimate Dembele. But the problem at PSG is how Enrique makes collective team play because I see that currently they still only rely on one or two players in their game tactics.

[Jody.Drummer]

Last season not really excited drawing champion league match with many strong team like Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have to face each other before final stage. I hope few hours later with drawing get balance between strong teams not have to face early on quarter final and excited will be in semifinal or final round. I agree with your opinion, if strong teams have to face on quarter final phase will make boring final stage because not strong teams will play in the final.
I hope between Real Madrid and Manchester City will not face until semifinal phase and both teams get draw will play until final stage if can win from knock out round until semifinal phase.

I think everyone also hopes for something like that. We hope that the strong teams will not meet early because the atmosphere will be less exciting. If you look at the runners up this season, PSG, Inter and PSV are among the strong teams that will definitely meet a strong team from the group winners. I don't know if the rules have changed, but as far as I know, each pool is filled with the champion from each group and the other pool is filled with the runner up from each group.

It would be a bit disappointing if the leading clubs had to face each other before the final or at least the semifinals, and it happened last season. In the travel table Manchester City are bigger than Inter Milan who are their opponents in the final. If I'm not mistaken, the Serie A clubs had to beat each other and in the end it was Inter Milan who made it to the final, and to be honest last season I didn't expect Inter Milan to be in the final, because last season they weren't good enough and they were inconsistent. Although they did put up a good fight in the final, it wasn't a great climax for me.

[legendbtc]

I think everyone has similar thoughts about PSG. What I will point out will be more interesting. So, if PSG surprises this year and reaches the semi-finals or finals, will this success be Enrique's success? Maybe if such a thing happens, Mbappe will stay in the team and with a few great transfers, PSG will be one of the favorites next year. This probability is very low, but what if it happens? That's when PSG can catch fire again.

I think this is very unlikely to happen. Last season, they had both Neymar and Messi. But they were eliminated from the Champions League in round 16. Actually, currently, they do not have enough strength to challenge other teams.
Even if PSG is eliminated in the next round, Mbappé will still be the best player today. Maybe he will leave in the next transfer window. Which club will be lucky to have him?

Even every thing is possible in this sport but as PSG is performing I have doubt as they can reach into last eight most chances their journey is going to be ended in this round which could be another poor end for them, they need some time for having mentality and performance for having this trophy and it's never been easy currently their squad having few players which are going to have good future but this all needs some more time Mbappé future is also not clear with we can expect Victor Osimhen can join here in coming season as well.

Luis Enrique is good coach, and he can create good things here in this club as well, but it needs some more time which will allow him for bringing best from the players and also working on mind-set is also important without these changes they can't win this trophy.

Mbappé's failure to extend his contract. As an influence for PSG management to target his replacement, Victor Osim hen is a pretty reasonable name right now. With abundant financial resources, they will recruit Victor Osimhen quite quickly. No matter the price.
Luis Enrique has not yet shown that he can create miracles. He is just managing his team's matches more stably.

[Google+]

This is still a problem and difficult for PSG to avoid because they with the power of star players even when there are Messi, Mbappe and Neymar also cannot promise to celebrate the UCL trophy. So we can conclude that UCL is not about a club full of stars, but about the mentality of all players, teamwork and what usually gives the most plus points is experience many times and understands how the atmosphere of competition in UCL. All of that PSG needs to have if they want to win the UCL, after several attempts until now it has not been fulfilled. Being able to dominate the Domestic League does not guarantee the same thing in the UCL, PSG still has to face teams with different strengths, mentality and cross-domestic clubs.

It is not easy to build a team to be able to win the UCL or compete fiercely with top European teams, as Manchester City only managed to win the UCL after a long process they went through to build the framework or foundation of the team so they could compete in the race for the UCL title.

While PSG currently does not have such criteria even though they have many star players, there is nothing instant in building all teams, everything has to go through a long process and PSG does not carry out that process.

Well, last season PSG had a lot of big star players like Lionel Messi and Neymar, but they didn't have a coach who was full of experience in the Champions League. And when they have a coach who has great experience but they don't have players who have the mentality to win the UCL trophy. I think they really need time to process to be able to compete more strongly with big teams from other leagues. For this season, PSG is still highly regarded by their opponents and I hope they can go well in every match they play. The winter transfer window will soon arrive where PSG can make the best use of the transfer market to be able to close the weak gaps in their squad.

If you look at Manchester City, of course they needed time to become UCL champions and their patience paid off by winning the triple winner last season. In this way, PSG can learn from them not to keep firing coaches because every coach needs time to bring their team to become champions, especially in the Champions League competition. Luis Enrique is a great coach, he just needs time to bring the UCL trophy to Ligue 1, therefore if PSG fails again this season they don't have to fire their coach.

[reagansimms]

Dembele is also a great player, although Mbappe is much better known as a world striker. PSG also once had a number of world star players at the club, but they also failed to become champion candidates. Luis Enrique needs to build a better squad and must prioritize collectivity over individual skill and he needs to learn a lot from what Pep Guardiola did at Manchester City because their squad is also not strengthened by world star players.

City is a great club. But this season they seem to be having difficulties when their main players are injured. This can be seen from their last 5 matches when Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne suffered injuries. I'm afraid they won't be able to go further in the champions league this season. And for PSG I agree with what you said that they only have Mbappe as a world class striker although I also don't underestimate Dembele. But the problem at PSG is how Enrique makes collective team play because I see that currently they still only rely on one or two players in their game tactics.

Even though Manchester City managed to advance to the round of 16 as group winners after sweeping all matches with a win, they are actually experiencing a decline in performance. The player injury factor is the most reasonable reason, but a club as big as Manchester City should not be too dependent on just one or two players because they still have quality players who are ready to play in the areas needed.
Manchester City's performance in winning the UCL last season was very different from what they showed this season. With their current performance, I doubt they will be able to defend the UCL title for the second time in a row.

[makishart]

~Snip~

I think everyone has similar thoughts about PSG. What I will point out will be more interesting. So, if PSG surprises this year and reaches the semi-finals or finals, will this success be Enrique's success? Maybe if such a thing happens, Mbappe will stay in the team and with a few great transfers, PSG will be one of the favorites next year. This probability is very low, but what if it happens? That's when PSG can catch fire again.

It is very easy for PSG to dominate Ligue 1 and dominate other domestic competencies with the top players they buy every time the transfer window opens, but winning the Champions League is not as easy as buying players. In fact, PSG was only able to advance to the last 16 in the last seven seasons, they reached the final in the 2019/2020 season, then in the following season their progress stopped in the semifinals.

This season the PSG squad is under the guidance of Luis Enrique who has experience in the UCL, but their inconsistent performance makes their journey very difficult when facing big teams. I don't think PSG can surprise this season, they qualified for the round of 16 due to luck after fighting hard in the group stage.

This season's UCL trophy is not for PSG, there are still other strong teams who always perform consistently who are better prepared to fight for the trophy. Luis Enrique must develop a strategy with a more solid team strength if he wants to bring PSG to the UCL trophy.

PSG are not yet ready to win the champoins league. The French league is not that competitive and the strongest team PSG struggled with Newcastle and other teams in their group. If they make it pass the round of 16 this season I think they are lucky. It will take PSG many years of consistency to win the Champions league, they should forget about it this season.

Agreed, PSG has not yet faced the strongest team in the UCL like real madrid and bayern. It was almost failing to qualify for the knock out stage. It sounds non sense to pick PSG as favorite to win the competition right now.
Luck or unluck have become side factor that was helping the club to qualify or not. In fact, PSG is not that strong to compete with the best club like manchester city, real madrid or bayern.
How many times PSG was botting its performance in the UCL? It can be answered easily. This is also the main reason PSG was always failed to get UCL.
The only best achievement to be runner up of UCL a few years ago but yeah it was a few years ago. Football developed even further and there are lots of change happened.

[emrecemsan]

According to the updated championship odds in the Champions League the most favoured a couple of teams are lined like this:

Manchester City : 3.00
Bayern Munich : 5.00
Real Madrid : 6.50
Arsenal : 8.00

The gap between Manchester City and Bayern Munich is even closer now than before. But I still have doubts about Bayern Munich as I didn't like their game very much during the group stage. They struggled quite much in some matches despite winning anyway. This can be a big problem for them when they face a title contender in later stages.

I can say that Manchester city does not possess the super power that bookmakers are seeing them to posses. They are less powerful than last season. If Real Madrid players are to return from injury, they will become the favourites to win the champions league. I don't know why Bayern is rated high by the bookmakers.

You are right about Manchester City now. They have really been on the decline recently however this has been like that in the English Premier League.

On the other hand they were really impressive in the Champions League group stage. They won all of their matches you know. Crvena zvezda and Young Boys aren't a big challenge for them though. But Leipzig were a good challenge for them. If they keep up their full concentration on Champions League matches I think they won't play like they do in the English Premier League these days.

[Justbillywitt]

According to the updated championship odds in the Champions League the most favoured a couple of teams are lined like this:

Manchester City : 3.00
Bayern Munich : 5.00
Real Madrid : 6.50
Arsenal : 8.00

The gap between Manchester City and Bayern Munich is even closer now than before. But I still have doubts about Bayern Munich as I didn't like their game very much during the group stage. They struggled quite much in some matches despite winning anyway. This can be a big problem for them when they face a title contender in later stages.

I can say that Manchester city does not possess the super power that bookmakers are seeing them to posses. They are less powerful than last season. If Real Madrid players are to return from injury, they will become the favourites to win the champions league. I don't know why Bayern is rated high by the bookmakers.

You are right about Manchester City now. They have really been on the decline recently however this has been like that in the English Premier League.

On the other hand they were really impressive in the Champions League group stage. They won all of their matches you know. Crvena zvezda and Young Boys aren't a big challenge for them though. But Leipzig were a good challenge for them. If they keep up their full concentration on Champions League matches I think they won't play like they do in the English Premier League these days.

Manchester city will rediscover their form and when they do they will start their winning streak. For me they are still the favorite to lift the champions league this season. You are right about them not having a proper challenge in the group stages, but am sure they can play any team in the round of 16.