The Champions League is back! The new-look setup to Europe’s biggest competition may seem confusing, but Grosvenor Sport ambassador Jamie O’Hara is on hand to guide you through a selection of matches over the next three days.
Let’s see what Jamie predicts across four key fixtures this week.
Young Boys v Aston Villa – Tuesday 17:45
This is a big one for Aston Villa in their return to the Champions League. They’re looking good so far this season – they’re moving the ball well and have picked up some good players in the summer window. Amadou Onana looks a great pickup from Everton. You feel they know how to get results under Unai Emery and we saw that the other day against Everton after going 2-0 down.
Young Boys are always there in the Champions League and will have tournament experience over nearly all of these Villa players. It’ll be a tough game first up for Villa, but I expect them to win in Switzerland here and continue their good start to the season.
Prediction: Young Boys 1-2 Aston Villa (13/2)
AC Milan v Liverpool – Tuesday 20:00
Liverpool will be looking for answers after such a bad result on the weekend against Nottingham Forest, but going away to Milan will be a tough game for them. This is a proper European game – two old school giants of football! Having said that, Milan haven’t had the best start to the season in Serie A and do look beatable at home.
Arne Slot will be wanting to put things right here and I can see Liverpool getting a good result. Their players are full of European experience and know how to grind out results away on the big stages in the Champions League.
Prediction: AC Milan 0-2 Liverpool (19/2)
Manchester City v Inter Milan – Wednesday 20:00
Manchester City will be too strong here. They usually don’t start the season as well as possible and end up having to make up lost ground by the start of winter, but they’ve won every game this season and just look imperious going forwards. Erling Haaland just appears to be on another level this year.
I still think this will be a good game because Inter Milan have a strong squad these days under Simone Inzaghi. I think they have the ability to cause City problems if Pep Guardiola’s men start the game slowly, but I can’t see them being able to live with City’s attack for 90 minutes.
Prediction: Manchester City 3-1 Inter Milan (9/1)
Atalanta v Arsenal – Thursday 20:00
This will be a tough game for Arsenal, even off the back of that North London Derby win. Martin Odegaard is still injured and Atalanta are a good team who score a lot of goals. I don’t see Arsenal winning the game here because it’s a tricky place to go – we saw that with Manchester United a couple of years ago.
What I will say about Arsenal and Mikle Arteta though is that they’re incredibly hard to beat – Gabriel and William Saliba are an incredible centre-back pairing. They’ll have Declan Rice back and will know the importance of not losing these kind of games. I’m backing a draw here.
Prediction: Atalanta 1-1 Arsenal (11/2)
Jamie’s Champions League MW1 Four-Fold:
- Aston Villa to beat Young Boys
- Liverpool to beat AC Milan
- Manchester City to beat Inter Milan
- Atalanta vs Arsenal draw
Total Odds: 17/1