Champions League Showdown: Big Names and Underdogs

Look at the games that we have in hand, my friend. But let's start with the champions, the current champions of the competition, Paris Saint-Germain. We're going to have some amazing games. Barcelona, Manchester City, Roma, Aston Villa, Galatasaray, Villarreal, Bratislava and one very dangerous Italian Como team that is small in name, but big in the standings, my friend. What do you think? Big in the standings. Big, big names, too, for Como. Look, maybe not on the field. They don't have a bunch of household names coached by Flabbergast. Thierry Henry, a co-owner of the club as well, bringing this squad up from from like this meteoric rise to the Serie A. And now here they are in the Champions League. Are you kidding me? They do not have an easy path forward, obviously, because they're a lower ranked squad. But it's going to be fascinating to watch Como. I hope that they do good things. I hope that they kind of become what we saw, you know, with other teams recently where they just play with the heart and they surprise and they make magic happen on the field and maybe even pull out some upsets. Who knows? But that first line, you're right. Now, Magnus, it's going to be insane. Insane. It's going to be hard for PSG to repeat the championship. Now, Arsenal was the best team in the past league phase of the Champions League. It's going to be tough. They have big teams in front of them. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Real Betis, Lille, Napoli, that's always dangerous, and Saba and Slavia Praha. Nick, do you think Arsenal with its current form and its current roster is also going to be a team to watch on this Champions League season? 100 percent. 100 percent. Arsenal is back, baby. Speaking of Thierry Henry, like they're back. I love Arsenal. I had an absolute blast watching them, not because they're an exciting, sexy, fun, flashy squad. They were literally the opposite. But they were playing great football and they got really far. And I honestly, for a while, thought they were going to take it all the way. But you missed one very important squad there on that list, mister. And that is Viking Viking from Norway, making their debut coming in all the way from Norway. Norway making a name for itself on the world stage at the World Cup. Thanks to Holland. But now they're wiggling their way through in to the Champions League as well, them and Glimpse. Now, before we move on to big news in the UEFA headquarters, Nick, I want to pull up the teams that are in the number four pot, the bottom of the bottom of the classification for Champions League. Now, these are the underdogs, as you call them. These are the stories that we follow since last season. Tell me, Nick, what can we expect from these teams? Do you see any of these actually pulling a surprise? Oh, boy. Last year, Marcelino, you sent me where? You sent me to Azerbaijan. You sent me to Kazakhstan. You sent me all over the world, getting me hyped, getting me pumped for these squads, only to be disappointed. I know it's a beautiful dream fairy tale story. But at the end of the day, what we see tends to happen is these squads like Saba here on this on this bottom list that you're talking about, again, from Azerbaijan. They're going to come out. They're going to play with heart. They won. Sure, they're Azerbaijani in title, but they're not going to do great, unfortunately. It's what we saw with Kairat Almaty from Kazakhstan, who hosted Real Madrid, got blown out. And then, you know, the same thing with that other Azerbaijani squad last year as well. But it's a feat that they've made it here, that they've made a name for himself. And I have a fun fact for you for Saba, by the way. And I think that is very worth noting their coach is Lithuanian. His name is Valdas Dambrauskas. I'm reading it here. I hope I got that right. He once financed a trip to England to pursue his coaching career with money that he won on Lithuania's version of who wants to be a millionaire. So no, these squads, they have these fascinating stories to them, these storylines that are not just, whoa, this small club made it all the way to the champion. No, it's more than that. It's also that they have these amazing histories and these amazing, passionate fans in these small cities and towns and countries that they might come from. No one might have thought of Azerbaijan when it comes to football, at least. It's their job to kind of put them on the map.