UEFA Champions League: What to look out for on Matchday 1

The 2020/21 UEFA Champions League gets under way on Tuesday and Wednesday with holders Chelsea among 32 teams aiming for the final in Saint Petersburg on 28^th May 2022.

This article looks at the stand-out encounters and what could capture the headlines on Matchday 1, with Dafabet offering impressively boosted odds for punters available on https://bit.ly/3k82kFz.

UEFA Champions League fixtures

What can we look forward to?

Following their moves this summer, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are likely to play their first UEFA Champions League games for Paris New-Germain and Manchester United respectively.

Ronaldo is first in line as he could play his first European game for United, away at Swiss outfit Young Boys on Tuesday, since a 2-0 defeat in the 2009 final against Messi’s Barcelona.  Messi’s new team also kick off their campaign away to Club Brugge on Wednesday.

 The pair have some long-standing rivalry but it is Ronaldo, who leads Messi in the competition’s all-time scorers list with 134 goals against the Argentine rival’s 120.

Reliving AC Milan, Liverpool final  

These two giants of European football will face off in the third competitive meeting and the stand-out encounter of these remains Liverpool’s epic 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.

Milan fans, though, will remember the last encounter more fondly, the Rossoneri beating the Reds 2-1 in the 2007 decider in Athens.

Title holders face final hosts

Chelsea open their title defense by hosting Russian champions Zenit, whose Gazprom Arena will host this season’s final on 28^th May.

Elsewhere, Barcelona will begin life without Messi in the Champions League with a marquee fixture at home against Bayern Munich, who beat them 8-2 in a humiliating encounter in 2020.

PHOTO/COURTESY