With Champions League starting we turn to Football Manager to predict the winners of this year's campaign, and it will be the fairy tale ending!
With Champions League starting today, we again turn to Football Manager to predict the winners of this year's campaign, and it will be the fairy tale many football fans want to see.
According to Football Manager, this year of Champions League will have an ending most football fans want to see, with one legendary player finally lifting the trophy in the most prestigious club competition in the world.
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Real Madrid will suffer a defeat from one of the oil rich clubs, Barca will bomb their campaign, and English clubs still have no place in the elite of European football.
What will be a consolation prize for Real, or rather Ronaldo, is that the Portuguese international will once again be a winner of the Golden Boot scoring 11 times in 10 outings. Second placed is Tottenham's Harry Kane with 6 in 8 appearances and third placed is Juve's Dybala with 6 goals in 13 appearances.
Champions League Group Stage Overview
Group Winners: Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Man City, AS Monaco, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Roma.
Second Placed: Shakhtar, Tottenham, Atletico, Bayern, Dortmund, FC Porto, Sporting, Chelsea.
As you can see there are no Napoli, Manchester United and most surprisingly Barcelona in either group winners or second placed teams. All three will fail miserably in their Champions League campaign this season and finish 3rd in their respective groups, well that's according to Football Manager.
Champions League Last 16
The first knockout round of the Champions League is a disappointing one for English clubs, as only Liverpool continue their journey after the Klopp's side demolishes Portuguese Sporting 6-1 on aggregate. Chelsea suffers unfortunate exit to Conte's former club Juventus after the tie goes on to penalty shutout where Hazard, Fabregas, and Morata miss first three penalties.
Manchester City had the weakest opponent, but could not get pass through FC Porto as their goalkeeper Ederson had a disastrous two games receiving 6.2 and 6.4 ratings. Tottenham had the toughest task in the first knockout round as they were unfortunate to be paired with Champions League current title holders Real Madrid. They suffer a 4-2 loss on aggregate, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring three goals in two games.
Champions League Quarterfinals
Liverpool as the only English side which survived the first knockout round has been handed FC Porto, a team that eliminated Man City in the previous round, and with the help of Lallana, Emre Can and Sadio Mané they progress to the semi-final of the competition eliminating the Portuguese side 3-1 on aggregate.
Elsewhere, PSG eliminates defending champions Real Madrid with Neymar scoring 2 goals in PSG's 3-1 win on aggregate. Atletico, surprisingly or not, eliminates German giants Bayern, and the clash between two Italian sides between Juventus and Roma ends in Italian champion progressing further to semifinals with a 3-1 win on aggregate.
Champions League Semifinals
Semifinals see last English club in the competition exit by the hands of the Italian champions Juventus. Liverpool fought boldly against the Italians and if it weren't for Paulo Dybala's excellent performances in both rounds the Reds could have progressed to the finals. The Argentine scored in both matches, whilst it was Mohammed Salah that scored only Liverpool goal in a first leg tie that was played in Turin.
The other semifinal tie saw oil rich Paris Saint-Germain progress to the final with an aggregate victory against Atletico. Cavani and Thiago Motta scored goals for PSG, while the only goalscorer for Spanish club was Koke.
Champions League Final
And it is Juventus who reclaim the Champions League glory! It is truly a fairy tale ending that the legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon deserves. Buffon wins the only trophy that he lacked in his magnificent career with the help of two Croats, Mario Mandzukic and the unlikely hero Marko Pjaca, who score goals to tie and then win the game after Lucas Moura gave the lead to the French side in the 53rd minute of the game.
Both Mandzukic and Pjaca came in as substitutes after PSG scored. Paulo Dybala wins player of the match award as he was involved in both Juve's goals with assists.
ALSO READ: Football Manager Predicts Serie A
So that's it, would you agree with Football Manager's prediction to this year's Champions League?
