The road to St Petersburg

What is set to be an epic season of UEFA Champions League football kicks off on September 14 as the Premier League’s finest teams set their sights on going all the way in the illustrious European competition. Club Football looks ahead to the unmissable feast of football coming to our screens.

The world’ s most illustrious club competition returns in September with hopes high that England’ s four representatives –Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool – can mount strong challenges for the fabled trophy.

Competition will be fierce, however, and when you throw Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid into the mix, there is very little room for error for any team hoping to go all the way.

And with UEFA repealing their earlier ban on travelling fans in light of the improving Coronvirus situation, it is likely that the upcoming games will generate some of the fantastic atmospheres we ’ ve come to expect from the competition.

For the majority of fans who will not travel, the blanket coverage of the tournament by BT Sport – the broadcaster is showing every single game live – will be very welcome to club members eager to watch the world’ s best players performing on the European stage.

Holders Chelsea have strengthened their ranks over the summer with the arrival of Romelu Lukaku and Saul Niguez and will have every intention of successfully defending their title won in the final against Manchester City last season with a 1-0 scoreline, having despatched Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals. is time around, omas Tuchel’ s side find themselves up against Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg and Malmö in Group H in the initial stage of the competition.

First up, they take on Russian champions Zenit at Stamford Bridge on September 14 before travelling to Turin to face arguably their strongest of the group, Juventus, two weeks later.

Swedish side Malmö, who are managed by former Newcastle striker Jon Dahl Tomasson, make up what should be a relatively straightforward group for the west London club to progress from.

Despite the relatively favourable draw for Chelsea for the group stages, club legend Petr Cech, who is now the Blues ’ technical and performance advisor, says that the team is taking nothing for granted as they prepare the defence of their title.

“You always have to respect the traditional teams like Juventus and you always have to respect every opponent you get in the group in the Champions League, ” said Cech.

“ese are big games and Zenit and Malmo will want to play their part in the group stage and give themselves a chance to get as many points as possible, so we have to respect that.

“e players and staff and everybody knows that once you win something, you are always the one everybody wants to play against and it is a special motivation. It is always harder to retain titles so we know it’ s going to be tough.

“We go into the group as reigning champions and everybody will expect us to do well and we will have to live with that fact.

“You want to show that you can do it again and it’ s not easy, but we have a great squad and people with experience so we know that we can cope with those expectations, now we have to prove it on the pitch. ”

Expectations are also high at Manchester City whose dream of Champions League glory was dashed once again last season as they lost to Chelsea in the final, despite the vast talent at their disposal coupled with the tactical acumen of manager Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola will no doubt have a masterplan to neutralise Lionel Messi – with whom he won two Champions League titles at Barcelona –after City were drawn to play the Argentinian maestro ’ s new side, Paris Saint-Germain, in this season ’ s group stage. e two clubs are joined in Group A by RB Leipzig and Belgian champions Club Brugge, two relatively unfancied sides.

City are sure to be a force to be reckoned with, particularly with Romeo Lavia and £100 million man Jack Grealish as the new additions to a squad already overflowing with footballing talent.

It will be fascinating to see how they fare against PSG, one of the few European teams around who can match City for both resources and lofty European ambitions – as the Parisians ’ hefty summer transfer bill demonstrates.

Last season, City met the French side at the semi-final stage, beating the French giants 2-1 in Paris and 2-0 at the Etihad, so will have huge confidence that they can top the group, despite the various changes in playing personnel at both teams in the interim.

City ’ s Sporting Director, Txiki Begiristain, however, sounded a note of caution after the group draw was made in August.

“We have been through against PSG before but you have to understand they have improved every year and now this summer, even more, ” he said.

“e signings they have made, the names and the quality of the players they have, are clear to see.

“You see the groups in this season ’ s competition, like the one featuring Porto, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and Milan.

“Just to get to the knockout round is going to be unbelievably difficult for all those sides. Some of the big names in football are going to be out at the group stages. at is the magnitude of this competition. ” e 2019 champions Liverpool certainly have a tough task ahead with some quality opponents facing them in the group but manager Jurgen Klopp remains optimistic of his side ' s chances of progressing.

“It’ s a tough group obviously, ” Klopp told LiverpoolFC.com. “It’ s the Champions League, so that’ s how it is, and you have to play the best teams in Europe, and obviously some of them are in our group.

“We played, I don ’t know how often, already against Porto, so they will be waiting for us. We have obviously a little bit of an open bill with Atletico, and AC Milan, a historical one obviously.

“So, I think our supporters should be looking forward to it – we are, for sure. I know that people sit always at home and think, ‘Ah come on, that would be cool, then you have this team together and the worst of pot four and the worst of pot on ’ and all this kind of stuff.

“So, we didn ’t get that obviously but we ’ re still pretty ambitious and would like to show the really hard work from last year, qualifying for the Champions League, that it was worth it. at’ s how we will play the games. ” e Reds get their campaign underway on Matchday 1 against AC Milan.

Amazingly, this is only the third competitive meeting for these two giants of European football. e first was Liverpool’ s shoot-out success in the 2005 UEFA Champions League football: the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ , in which the Reds hauled back a 3-0 deficit to triumph. e last encounter was in 2007 when Milan were 2-1 winners in Athens.

The UEFA Champions League coverage gets underway on Tuesday, September 14

Meanwhile, Manchester United find themselves in a far more favourable position in Group F of the tournament where they face ties against Atalanta, Villarreal and Young Boys, none of which are regarded as heavyweight opponents at the rarefied level of European competition.

United have reached two Champions League quarter-finals in the past 10 years and have been resoundingly beaten in both, by Barcelona in 2019 and Bayern Munich in 2014.

With the sensational signing of veteran superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as the likes of England star Jadon Sancho and four-time Champions League winner Raphael Varane, United will be looking to go the distance in Europe this season – starting with winning their group. ey begin the campaign with an away trip to Switzerland to face Young Boys on Tuesday, September 14 in what could be Ronaldo ’ s first European game for Manchester United since a 2-0 defeat in the 2009 final against Lionel Messi’ s Barcelona.

Interestingly enough, Ronaldo leads Messi 134-120 in the competition ’ s all-time scorers list and will be aiming to widen that gap further during 2021-22. e rivalry between these two all-time great players – both showing absolutely no signs of succumbing to the ageing process – will be just one of the many side-plots in what is sure to be an epic season of UEFA Champions League football.

For a demonstration of the quality of the competition, Matchday 1 features a group clash between Bayern Munich and Barcelona at the Nou Camp – a massive game for neutrals and diehard fans alike and a head-to-head which would be worthy of a final.

Bayern have notched up six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles in their illustrious history – the latest in 2020 – while Barcelona have an incredible eight wins at the highest level of European competition, the last time in 2015.

It all adds up to a feast of unmissable football across the group stages and beyond.

UEFA Champions League 2021/22 - Key Dates

Group stage 14/15 September: Matchday 1 28/29 September: Matchday 2 19/20 October: Matchday 3 2/3 November: Matchday 4 23/24 November: Matchday 5 7/8 December: Matchday 6

Knockout stage 13 December 2021: Round of 16 draw 15/16/22/23 February & 8/9/15/16 March: Round of 16 18 March: Quarter-final & semi-final draws 5/6 & 12/13 April: Quarter-finals 26/27 April & 3/4 May: Semi-finals 28 May: Final (Gazprom Arena, Russia)