With Dinamo Zagreb-Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund-Copenhagen (this Tuesday at 6:45 p.m.) the Champions League begins, although it really started on June 21 with the preview of the preview.
The group stage of the 32 best teams in Europe begins this Tuesday dreaming of continuing alive on June 10 in the Istanbul final, each of them with their particular virtues, the vast majority with a goal scorer per flag. They are all. All the big names appear at the appointment. Not all. Except one.
Cristiano Ronaldo will be missing, which has struggled during the market to escape from Manchester and be accepted by one of those 32 clubs to continue enjoying the leadership in the statistics. Nobody loved him. Neither because of his economic pretensions nor those demanded by United nor because of the 37 years that make him a veteran.
the great absence
It will be the main absence of a tournament that, however, will not miss him in the presence of all the gunners on the planet. From his colleagues. The Portuguese can rest easy. No one will assault his throne. he will continue to be number one in games played (183) and in goals (140).
Cristiano’s team will also be missing. Manchester United, fourth in participations, fails for the second time in four seasons. He would not be among the candidates.
A wide bouquet that welcomes the historic ones, with the champion at the forefront (Real Madrid, Bayern, Liverpool), new arrivals (Chelsea, Manchester City, PSG) and a Barça that will try to amend its declining European prestige and that reached its climax with the third place in the group and the transfer to the Europa League last year.
Bayern and Inter make it difficult to qualify for the round of 16, which should be an obligation for Xavi Hernández. “We are candidates, but not favourites,” admitted the coach, still embarrassed by the team’s performance on the continent.
The most famous striker
It seems difficult for Lionel Messi to unseat Cristiano from his record with 125 points in the Champions League, although you can expect anything from Leo. He even adds the 15 units that separate him from the Portuguese. Especially if Paris Saint Germain is capable of translating on the pitch, with goals, all the talent that he has gathered in attack, without a doubt the most famous and fanciful.
Together with Messi they line up Neymar (41 goals) and Kylian Mbappe (33), with whom he shares the occasions and the shots, and who have already climbed to the leading positions of the list of gunners.
Messi scored 120 goals for Barça and 5 for PSG last season. The change of club made a dent in his performance. Robert Lewandowski has changed club to restart his career, although he had reached the zenith in Munich with the two Golden Boots in a row that he has installed in the dining room of his house.
The Polish striker has not accused the transfer to the Camp Nou. With five goals in four days, he shares the Pichichi with Iago Aspas. He is the third leading scorer of all time, a position shared with Karim Benzema. Both have scored 86 goals, but Lewandowski has a better average: he celebrated them in 36 fewer games.
Benzema, the main contender for the Ballon d’Or this season (he has already won the Pichichi of the League and the Champions League, plus the trophy for the best player in the competition and UEFA’s best of the year), boasts of being the most successful among his colleagues with the five Champions achieved.
The hulking Haaland
Lewandowski’s void in Munich, where he will return next Tuesday in the morbid appointment that also awaits Barça, is occupied by Sadio Mané. The former Liverpool striker will have to come to terms with Thomas muller, Lewy’s old partner, an illustrious thirtysomething and no less illustrious scorer.
Mohammed Salah, at Anfield, already makes friends with Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez. Zlatan Ibrahimovic holds the forty-year-old condition, who Milan has not entered in the group due to injury. His position in the box is occupied by Oliver Giroud.
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Among all of them has broken with an enormous force Erling Haland. He is the only one who has scored more goals than games he has played. He did it with Salzburg and Dortmund, which contains more merit: 23 goals in 19 games. At City he is already putting on his boots.
Cristiano will watch the Champions League on TV. The striker, a substitute at United, will play the Europa League on Thursdays. This week will host Real Sociedad at Old Trafford.