The Champions League begins on Tuesday evening with Real Madrid looking to defend their crown
Real Madrid celebrate last season's Champions League win at Wembley(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Champions League is back this week and Europe's premier club competition has a brand new format to boot.
Gone is the familiar group stage, replaced by a new 'league phase' that sees all 36 teams lumped together into a unified table, with each club playing eight different opponents, four at home and four away. The top eight in the table will qualify automatically for the last 16, with those finishing between ninth and 24th facing two-legged play-offs to join them.
Real Madrid are looking to defend the trophy they won in Wembley back in June, but will face stiff competition from the leading Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A sides. But how do the bookies see it panning out? FourFourTwo takes a look at the odds, according to SkyBet and correct as of the morning of Tuesday, 17 September.
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Champions League 2024/25 odds to win: 1. Manchester City 9/4
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland celebrates his goal against Brentford (Image credit: Getty Images)
Pep Guardiola's side will start the competition as favourites as the club look to reclaim the trophy that they won during their triumphant 2022/23 treble-winning season.
The Citizens claimed their record fourth straight Premier League title last season, but begin their Champions League campaign just as their long-awaited hearing into their 115 charges of alleged financial rule-breaking gets underway.
2. Real Madrid 7/2
Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham celebrates a (Image credit: Getty Images)
Given that the defending champions have responded to winning their 15th European Cup by signing perhaps the planet's best player in Kylian Mbappe and bringing the most promising young Brazilian forward in Endrick, it's perhaps a surprise they're not favourites to retain their crown.
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The experienced duo of Toni Kroos, Nacho Fernandez are gone though and there are question marks about the team's defensive depth, so Carlo Ancelotti will have to do more than just tell his attacking stars to show up and do their thing.
3. Arsenal 8/1
Leandro Trossard of Arsenal celebrates (Image credit: Getty Images)
Last season's Premier League runners up are the third favourites to lift the trophy after recruiting the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling.
The Gunners have never won the competition and while their priority will be knocking Manchester City off their Premier League perch, Mikel Arteta's men do have the talent to go all the way.
4. Liverpool 12/1
Liverpool boss Arne Slot (Image credit: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
After failing to qualify for last season's Champions League, Jurgen Klopp gave new boss Arne Slot a parting gift of a top-four finish and a place among Europe's big hitters.
Slot took Feyenoord to a European final in 2022, with his side losing the final of the Europa Conference League to Roma and he will be hoping to continue the Reds' rich tradition in the competition.
5. Barcelona 12/1
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick (Image credit: Sven Hoppe via DPA)
Off-the-pitch Chaos has followed Barcelona in recent seasons, but new boss Hansi Flick will be hoping to put the club's financial misgivings behind him and his squad as they go in search of a first European crown for ten years.
Four members of the Barca squad - including teenage sensation Lamine Yamal - got a taste of European glory with Spain this summer.
6. Bayern Munich 12/1
Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany (Image credit: Getty Images)
Vincent Kompany will be keen to prove he is more than just European football's best recent example of falling upwards this season.
After leading Burnley to relegation last season, the Belgian now finds himself tasked with taking Bayern Munich not only back to the top of the Bundesliga, but also seeing if he can lead the club back to the top of the European game.
7. Paris Saint-Germain 18/1
Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma (Image credit: Getty Images)
After seeing Kylian Mbappe finally head to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain find themselves in something of a transition period, with the France skipper's exit marking the end of their Galaticos II project.
The likes of Joao Neves, Desire Doue and Willian Pacho were snapped up this summer and manager Luis Enrique will be hoping this injection of youth can bring about the club's first-ever European Cup.
Best of the rest
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery (Image credit: Getty Images)
If it's value you're after, then the likes of Serie A champions Inter Milan and Xabi Alonso's Bundesliga top dogs Bayer Leverkusen are both 25/1, as are Atletico Madrid and last year's beaten finalists Borussia Dortmund.
Juventus are a 33/1 shot, with AC Milan further back in the betting at 40/1, with Atalanta the longest shot from Serie A at 50/1.
The romantics out there might fancy a punt on Aston Villa at 66/1, as the Villans return to Europe's top competition for the first time since they were holders in 1982/83 in the week when one of the heros of that 1982 win, Gary Shaw, sadly passed away.
Celtic are 250/1 to repeat their 1967 win, while the competition's biggest outsiders are Young Boys and Slovan Bratislava, who are both given 1,000-1 odds.
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For more than a decade Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor, with stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others. He is the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team.
