Since the end of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League last season and Real Madrid emerging the champions of Europe after defeating English giants Liverpool in a 3-1 win in Kiev, Ukraine.
A lot has happened this summer since the Zinedine Zidane team lifted the Champions League trophy.
Three days after winning the trophy, Zidane steps down as Real Madrid manager and former Spain head coach Julen Lopetegui steps up as the best replacement Madrid president(Florentino Perez) could come up with.
As if that was not enough, Cristiano Ronaldo moves away from Spain to Italy and joined Serie A defending champions Juventus for a fee reported to be €100 million in a four year deal.
From 2016-2018, Real Madrid has been the only Champions League holder winning the European trophy for the third consecutive season.
However, many questions have been raised as to who will be taking home this 2018/19 Champions League with Madrid said to be posing a less threatening figure following the departure of Ronaldo to Italy.
With Juventus suddenly emerging favourites to lift the UEFA Champions League this season.
We’ll be looking at some favorites to win the 2018/19 Champions League.
Real Madrid: Despite losing their favourite and all time goal scorer Ronaldo to their European fierce rivals Juventus they still pose much threat and should be able to defend the European trophy properly.
Madrid new boss, Julen Lopetegui will be out to prove critics wrong and will be hoping to help the Spanish giants win the title for the fourth successive time.
The defending champions will be taking on CSKA Moscow (Russia), AS Roma (Italy), Plzen (Czech) in the Group G.
Manchester City: The Citizens has become one of the favorites to win the Champions League following their strong Premier League title campaign last season that saw them lift the trophy.
City coach Pep Guardiola will be hoping to go back to his European glory days with the Manchester club just as he did with his former club Barcelona and this could be the year. The Citizens will be facing Hoffenheim (Germany), Lyon (France) and Shaktar Donetsk (Ukraine) in the Group F of the Champions League.
Juventus: The Italian giants have always been a favourite to win the Champions League since they’ve been competing as they always finish as runners up and in some cases being sent back to Turin by Real Madrid with Ronaldo always playing a huge part in that.
The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo at the Old Lady has now increases their chances of claiming the European trophy for the first time in 22 years. With the Juventus attack looking more sharp and frightening than ever.
Barcelona: The Catalonia giants last won the Champions League in 2015 but since then have not been able to progress to the finals. And this year could be a defining moment for Barcelona with Lionel Messi taking the captain armband succeeding former teammate Andres Iniesta.
Messi could just be the one to lead the Catalans back to the Champions League glory. Barcelona do find themselves in a tricky team as they will competing in the Group B of the Champions League as the will face Inter Milan(Italy), PSV Eindhoven (Dutch) and Tottenham Hotspur (England).
Liverpool: Being last year’s runners up, the Reds seems to have gotten the better end of the Summer transfer deal as they were able to finally to fill the void left over by Philippe Coutinho last winter. Signing both Fabinho from Monaco and Naby Keita from RB Leipzig.
Jurgen Klopp will be hoping to challenge for the title this season after fixing some errors in the defence department of the Reds. To win the Champions League Klopp will have to get past the Group of death they’ve been put in facing Paris Saint-Germain (France), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) and Napoli (Italy) in the group C.
Bayern Munich: The Bundesliga champions was the second favourites to lift the European Cup last season before being eliminated by the defending champions in the semi-finals.
Bayern new head coach Niko Kovac will be hoping to take win the Champions League this season with all the talents involved in the team.
The Bavarians will progress to the next round of the Champions League as their path to the next round seems easy facing AEK Athens (Greece), Ajax (Dutch) and Benfica (Portugal).
Thos are the favourites to win the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League with one being more deadly than the other, at the end of the season we will sure know who emerge victor. If we believe most of the experts in football predictions Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona can be considered as the biggest favorites for the title.
