Welcome to the 27th edition of the UEFA Champions League (64th including the old competitions).

First, last season's recap:

2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 Winner: Real Madrid



After breaking the title winners curse in 2017, Real went into the 2017-18 edition of the tournament as one of the top favorites. Could they possibly win a third consecutive title? In the group, they were matched with Spurs, Dortmund and APOEL Nicosia, and many expected it to be a three-way fight for the top-two spots. In reality, Dortmund was so dog**** that they barely finished 3rd, tied on 2 points with APOEL, while Tottenham won the group undefeated. As runner-up, Real went into the Round of 16 draw unseeded - and promptly got drawn against PSG. In two high-quality matches, Real won the aggregate 5-2 over the French, who will probably have to spent another quarter-billion to reach a semi for once.

In the quarter-final, they met their favorite Italian rivals Juventus, and comfortably won the away leg 3-0 including a Ronaldo bicycle kick to pretty much lock up the semi-final- or did they? In the return leg at the Bernabeu, Mandzukic opened the scoring in the 2nd minute before adding a second goal shortly before half-time. When Matuidi scored the third in the 61st minute, all bets were suddenly off, as the game was tied 3-3 on aggregate. Would Real meet the same fate as Barca, who had sensationally dropped out after a 0-3 loss against Roma a day earlier? Many were hopeful:

But then:

Brave English ref John Oliver had decided to award Real a late penalty, which sent BUffon on monkey-tilt and also sent off. Ronaldo converted against Szczesny, and sent Real through to the semi-final.



After having knocked out the champions of France and Italy,, next up was Bayern, who had their traditional injury crisis. Kimmich scored the opener in Bayern's home leg, but goals by Marcelo and Asensio gave Real the edge going into the second leg. Once again, Kimmich scored the opening goal, but Benzema quickly equalized, before profiting off an Ulreich howler right after the kick-off in the second half. James equalized in the 63rd minute, which meant Bayern were only one goal away from knocking out Real - but the goal never came, a 4-3 aggregate victory got Real to their third consecutive final.

Their opponents were Klopp's Liverpool, who had knocked out Porto (5-0 agg.), Manchester City (5-1 agg.) and Roma (7-6 agg.) on their way to the final in Kiev. Their hopes of lifting the CL trophy 13 years after their famous Istanbul win were severely damaged when Mohamed Salah was subbed out due to a dislocated shoulder obtained in a duel with Sergio Ramos. On the other side, Dani Carvajal was also subbed off. The first half ended scoreless, but goals were soon to come, as Loris Karius produced comedy gold (later, it was discovered he had a concussion from colliding with, you guessed it - Sergio Ramos):



Quickly Liverpool found the equalizer, after a corner Sadio Mane put the ball into the net for the 1-1. In the 61st minute, Zidane made his second substitution of the match, bringing on Bale for Isco. About two minutes later:



And thus, Real Madrid did the three-peat. Zidane stepped down after the season, with former Spain coach Lopetegui taking over (and getting sacked two days before the World Cup for that.) But now, let's look at this season.

Teams and qualifying in 2018-19

Reformed spot allocation: More teams have qualified for the group stage directly, including the top-4 of Spain, Germany, England and Italy. With 26 of the 32 group stage slots filled, the remaining 53 teams will have to fight for one of the six remaining spots, in a extended qualifying format. Here's an overview (as I haven't found a good one online, I made this myself, and look forward to making a EL one as well which will be even more of a cluster****):



Preliminary round: FC Drita from Kosovo beat Andorran champion Santa Coloma 2-0 after extra time, marking the first win of a Kosovan team in a UEFA competition. Another extra time win against Lincoln Red Imps meant they advanced to the first qualifying round.

First qualifying round: FC Drita is joined by 31 champions from associations 20 (Poland) to 51 (Faroe Islands), except Liechtenstein (because **** Liechtenstein) and FC Drita: This round finished today, with the following results, the most notable upset produced by Lithuanian debutants Suduva knocking out APOEL.



Second qualifying round (Q2): The sixteen Q1 winners are joined by four more champions, and the League Path starts of with four teams:



Third qualifying round (Q3): AEK and RB Salzburg join the ten Q2 Champions Path winners, while six more non-champions enter the League path. Draw will happen on Monday.



Play-off round (PO): The ten Q3 winners are joined by Swiss champions Young Boys and Dutch champions PSV. Six match-ups, with the winner of each qualifying for the group stage.



The annual LÖL Salzburg corner

They still haven't reached the Group Stage. Will they do it this year? Here is their updated history of failure:

2006-07: lost 1-3 to Valencia in Q3.
2007-08: lost 2-3 to Shakthar in Q3.
2009-10: lost 1-5 to Maccabi Haifa in the play-off round.
2010-11: lost 3-4 to Hapoel Tel Aviv in the play-off round.
2011-12: lost 4-4 (away goals) to Dudelange (Luxembourg) in Q2.
2013-14: lost 2-4 to Fenerbahce in Q3.
2014-15: lost 2-4 to Malmö in the play-off round.
2015-16: lost 2-3 to Malmö in Q3.
2016-17: lost 2-3 to Dinamo Zagreb in the play-off round.
2017-18: lost 1-1 (away goals) to Rijeka in Q3

DER MARKT

It's very tight at the top:


Open questions:
- Can Real go four-in-a-row, even without Ronaldo?
- Can Ronaldo go four-in-a-row as top scorer (7-in-a-row if you count the tie with Neymar/Messi in 14/15), after scoring 16, 12 and 15 goals in the last three seasons?
- Will there be another surprise semi-finalist this season, after Monaco in 2016-17 and Roma in 2017-18?

Let's go!

in b4 butthurt "LOL at X not being a poll option".

Complain to Mason, 10 options max.

And I'll probably do the EL thread on the weekend.

Oh i click that

Der markt is drunk lol

In after bendtnahhhhh

Yeah, I noticed Bendtner converted a 94th minute penalty to keep Rosenborg in it.

Just realized I missed Celtic as an example in the last poll option, sorry Marty

To be honest, I was about to complain that they put PSV in tehre

PSG is big time back this year. If Neyney and 'bappé stay healthy, it's all over baby

Didn't my awesome Pool team go out and spend a fortune to cover all their weaknesses and become the favourite?
After Allisson and the midfield upgrade I don't see how the market can not think they're #1. Not saying it will all mesh, just think they should be betting favourites.

Du fangst dia glei a Kowatschn!

Nice OP.

Good stuff. It occurred to me that now Penaldo is gone I don't have to actively root against Real anymore.

Still gonna beat whatever English club you do root for.

I'm pretty sure that both Southampton and Schalke will make it through this Champions league season unbeaten.

God damn

It's Tottenham's year.

You just wait and see. Piling on at 32-1.

Looking forward to the jokes on them i was only pretending pöst after the Ro16.

I'm obviously joking

bianconeri

I went with Plop on this one. Sorry polppers.

Anyways 7 people voted PSG. I assume they thought the question was to make it past the quarter-finals...still a stretch tbh but okay

LÖL QSG

I see you SN!

Looks like 7 peoples want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Liverpool wins the it's coming home.

That's not me.

This is me: