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With the halfway mark in the group stages passed the leading lights in the Champions League are growing ever clearer. Here’s how the 32 clubs stand in terms of their likelihood of winning the whole thing:
The top tier: Title or bust
These teams should be disappointed with anything less than a semi final berth and frankly even that might not be enough, such is their talent profile.
1. Manchester City (–)
They may not have maximum points from what is one of the toughest groups in the Champions League, but Pep Guardiola’s side continue to burnish their reputation as one of the best sides in Europe, if not the best. A meeting with Club Brugge that had proven to be a banana skin for PSG and RB Leipzig was a rout for City, who now have the highest expected goals (xG) tally in the group stage, a sign of an attack that is ticking along at an extremely high gear even without the center forward it was thought they needed.
2. Liverpool (–)
If City offered up any reason for a change in the top three then Liverpool would be top immediately. They look so menacing in attack and, if Jurgen Klopp is to be believed, they have an overwhelming number of players who might just be the best in the world in their position; Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are only two of perhaps half a dozen. Games against AC Milan and Atletico Madrid suggest they have not yet got into the habit of killing off games that are there for the taking, but those wins at least proved that Liverpool can dig themselves out of holes of their own making too.
3. Bayern Munich (–)
It is the measure of this side that 70 minutes into a game against as rigid a defensive outfit as Benfica you can check the score and find yourself pondering whether Bayern might be wobbling for once. Then a few minutes later they have handed out another paddling, thumping a really good opponent 4-0. They look like the team of a few years ago and Leroy Sane…
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Source : cbssports
