About 17/18 Champions League Group A,B,C,D

17/18 UEFA Champions League has already started. As you can see the result above, the group stage draw was made a few days ago, and the first match is going to be held in September 13, 2017. And now, I'd like to choose two clubs for the next round of 16 in each group based on my anticipation for fun.

GROUP A

1st: Manchester United 

2nd: Benfica

- Many people might come to the conclusion that Manchester United will take 1st place in this group. It makes sense. Man united is showing off how strong they are with new members such as Matic and Lukaku in 17/18 PL nowadays. However, fans of the team remembered what happened in 11/12. Manchester united belonged to the same group with Benfica and Basel, ranked in 3rd after Benfica, 1st, and Basel, 2nd. Manchester united will do the best with Mourinho not to happen that failure again. The qualities of the squad have highly improved, more importantly, Mourinho's second season in Manchester united. It looks like that this team is eligible for 1st. 2nd rank would be Benfica that has proved itself to other clubs through previous seasons. Basel and CSKA Moskva have competitiveness in this group A, but it doesn't seem easy against Manchester United and Benfica.  

Group B

1st: Paris Saint-Germain

2nd: Bayern

- PSG is aiming for Champions League first rather than Ligue1. PSG never wants to experience the crisis happened in last season. Neymar who has already showed amazing performances in Ligue 1 is waiting for Champions League to become the number one player of the world with PSG for winner of this season. In addition, it is likely that Mbape will belong to PSG, which means this club is one of the most competitive contenders for The Big Ears. It is my anticipation that PSG will at least advance to the quarterfinals. Neymar is the key. Bayern Munich is absolutely in the list of clubs close to The Big Ears in spite of retirement of two great players, Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm. Becoming 6 consecutive Bundesliga champion is not a problem. I think Ribery and Robben are still the key players who have abilities to make a difference, but getting old, need to maintain physical strength during the season. Unfortunately, Anderlecht and Celtic wouldn't survive in the harsh Group B.

Group C

1st: Atletico Madrid

2nd: Chelsea

Group C is one of the most interesting ones along with group H. One of Chelsea, Atletico, and Roma will take the 1st position. Especially, I look forward to the match, Chelsea vs Atletico, Diego Costa derby, and reckon that Atletico will take the top of this group. Actually, it's greatly hard to anticipate which team is on 1st between Chelsea and Atletico, so I just follow my intuition. Atletico has proved itself in recent champions Leagues rather than Chelsea. That's the reason. AS Roma sent Mohamed Salah to Liverpool, and Antonio Conte, manager in Chelsea, has been well aware of Serie A. It seems like that Chelsea would be followed by Roma. Qarabag has finally participated in Champions League for the first time in the club's history. Congratulations! I hope that Qarabag will play as the underdog that makes people surprised.

Group D

1st: Juventus

2nd: Barcelona

Bonucci and Dani Alves left from Juventus; Bernardeschi, Matuidi, and Douglas Costa have joined the club. Defenders could be a weak point compared to last season. Nevertheless, Juventus has got good players I mention above, and this Italian club is trying to have Howedes from Schalke 04 to make up for Bonucci. Neymar, one of MSN of Barcelona, have gone to Paris for incredible transfer fee. And then, Ousmane Dembele and Paulinho have come to this Spain club from Germany and China respectively. Dembele definitely has superior talents, but I think he cannot fill in for previous Brazil's superstar. He should make his own ways to prove himself through the season. New manager and new players came as well as one of the most important player left, which means Barcelona will undergo trial and error to find the best line-up. This is why I chose Juventus as 1st and Barcelona as 2nd. Unfortunately, Olympiacos and Sporting CP aren't competitive enough to surpass Juventus and Barcelona.

In short, thoughts about Group E to H will be uploaded next posting.