Champions League Build-up and News Conferences

We are a few matches away before we reach the middle of the group stage of the current season of the Champions League. The European football clubs will battle it out to make it into the Round of 16 stages that will commence in February next year.

There is so much surprising news about our European clubs this year, such as the unexpected transfers during the summer transfer window. As for the new twists in this current iteration of the Champions League, there will be no more away goal tiebreakers this year that are formerly used in the knockout stage of the competitions as it was abolished by the UEFA this June.

As we wait for the main competition proper of Champions League that will kick-off in February, let’s hear first the latest updates from the bosses of the English quartet that are participating in the competition.

Manchester United

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solkjaer said that the surprising transfers of Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane, and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in the transfer window in the summer will bring the club a strong advantage in the competitions.

The returner Cristiano Ronaldo has brought some changes outside the pitch to the team as well. His healthy diet has been emulated by his teammates and when they saw what he has been eating, they have decided to ditch the puddings in Old Trafford.

Chelsea

The last Champions League defending winners, Chelsea has been doing great this season and they are very confident on repeating their win in this current campaign. According to the Blues boss, Thomas Tuchel, the feeling of being the winner is “addictive”.

Chelsea has defeated Man City in the finals of the Champions League last season and in this season, they are unbeaten in five matches so far.

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp spoke about how he praised former United player Zlatan Ibrahimovic who had injured his Achilles tendon that made the striker miss the match of Zlatan’s team AC Milan against his team, Liverpool this Wednesday.

“Zlatan, what a player. I think I saw a few videos of him when he got injured and then I saw him fighting back on the spinning bike. He came on in the last game and scored immediately,” Klopp said.

“Zlatan is one of the best to have ever played the game and he knows that. That is the confidence he brings to the game. Some careers may have ended too early because there was still some fuel in the tank but he squeezed every drop out of his body,” he added.

Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was recently asked a lot about the defeat of his side to the defending champions, Chelsea. 

“The Champions League has 13 games, last year we won 11 games and lost one. People said we failed. I think we did incredibly well. It is not guaranteed that if we did really well last season, we will do well in this one. The first thing is to win tomorrow,” Guardiola said.

“We lost the final against a good contender. We’ll try again but every team wants to win. We have to prepare well for the game and continue the rhythm of the last few games. We were at a high level and we have to continue this way,” he added.

Their defeat last season has motivated him in this current campaign. Guardiola said that he is still proud of his team, no matter what will happen in this season.

Final Words

We will see if Chelsea will retain their Champions League Winner title or let it fall to another deserving European BBC football club. The Round of 16 will start on February 16 to March 16, 2022, while the finals will occur on May 28, 2022, in St. Petersburg, Russia.