The new Champions League format is here.

For the previous 69 years, the Champions League maintained the same format: a group stage with 8 groups of 4 teams each. Now, it features a league format with a total of 36 clubs, where each team plays 6 others—3 at home and 3 away. The top 8 teams in the league qualify for the knockout rounds, while teams ranked 9-24 enter a playoff round to try and qualify for the knockout stages. The teams at the bottom of the table will be eliminated from the competition.

Here are my predictions for the league stage and my thoughts on the biggest contenders.

The teams I believe will be eliminated, in no particular order, are Young Boys, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar, Sparta Praha, Celtic, Slovan Bratislava, Brest, Sturm Graz, Crvena Zvezda, Feyenoord, Club Brugge, and Girona.

I expect Girona to struggle this year across all competitions. Although they were one of the better teams in La Liga last year, I think the challenge will be too great for them, especially after losing La Liga’s top goal scorer, Dovbyk, who signed with AS Roma earlier this summer.

Another team that might reach the playoff round is Shakhtar. They possess some of the best young talent in the world right now, but I worry that their lack of experience will prevent them from escaping the bottom of the table. Many of these teams are likely to be eliminated, and some were very close to making it into the playoff round.

The teams I see making the playoff round are Juventus, PSV, Aston Villa, Stuttgart, Sporting, Lille, Bologna, Salzburg, Benfica, Leverkusen, Atalanta, Leipzig, Monaco, PSG, Dortmund, and Inter Milan.
Several of these teams could make it into the top eight, such as Dortmund, PSG, Juventus, and Leipzig, but I believe they will just miss out.

I don’t have PSG in the top 8 because of the loss of Mbappé. Not having a great goal scorer will hurt PSG; while they might have Kolo Muani, he’s no Mbappé.

My top 8 teams that automatically qualify for the knockout stages, ranked from 8th to 1st, are Arsenal, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid.

I have Atlético Madrid winning the league phase due to their significant signings this past summer and the strong players already on the team. They are now loaded with talent, including Julián Álvarez, Conor Gallagher, Antoine Griezmann, Alexander Sørloth, Jan Oblak, and more. They also likely have the easiest schedule, with PSG as their only major challenge, and PSG has started to fall apart.

My dark horse for the league phase is Leipzig. This team could be dangerous with Lois Openda, Xavi Simons, new signing Antonio Nusa, and Gulácsi in goal. I could see them making a strong run.

That is my prediction for the 2024/25 Champions League league phase.