The football season is back with a bang! Who would have thought that Manchester United would have failed to win any of their first three matches in the Premier League? 

As the last qualifying round for the group stages of the Champions League come to a conclusion, let's look ahead and speculate which of Europe's top teams will triumph on May 21, 2008 at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow.

As usual the English clubs will be strong. Arsenal and Liverpool look to have sealed their places in the group stages with away-leg wins against Sparta Prague and Toulouse. With Manchester United and Chelsea already there, four quality clubs from England are in with a shot.  All have good pedigrees in recent years with maybe Chelsea being the under-performers.  The English teams are full of European stars that have played at the highest level throughout their careers and know what it take to win major honours.  Will this be Chelsea's year?

'The English teams are full of European stars that have played at the highest level throughout their careers and know what it take to win major honours'


Olympique Lyon, as French champions, also have a strong team; however the loss of influential playmaker Florent Malouda and the injury to Cris may scupper their chances once more. The team have lost two of their three league matches this season already, and may struggle to reach the knockout stages this time around.

Spain is just as strong as England with four teams looking for European glory. Sevilla are newcomers but should make the grade, especially after recent UEFA Cup successes and an even more recent demolition of Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup. Real themselves, after capturing the La Liga title in dramatic fashion last season, will be full of confidence to regain some of there former glory days in Europe. But again, the team needs to gel and they still concede too many goals.  Barcelona, with the brilliant Ronaldinho, should be there or thereabouts and with new signing Thierry Henry set to partner Samuel Eto'o upfront, could create Europe's deadliest partnership. Valencia would be underdogs but cannot be ruled out.

AC Milan will look to defend their trophy with pride and have a quality team too do just that. A team that rarely concede goals, with playmakers such as Ronaldo and Kaka they should score plenty. Inter Milan, as reigning Serie A champions, will come close; however, a recent Super Cup loss to Roma shows their vulnerability.  Both Milan teams are seasoned campaigners and can never be ruled out.

Germany's Champions League chances have somewhat been weakened with the exclusion of Bayern Munich, who failed to qualify after reaching only fourth place in the Bundesliga last year. However, Werder Bremen, Stuttgart and Schalke will be no pushovers and will show strength of character which should not be underestimated by opponents.

Other teams with a shout at causing an upset in the tournament are Portuguese champions Porto with their fast-paced play and Benfica, who did so well last year.  PSV Eindhoven may find this year's campaign too strong and Eastern European teams such as CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kiev and Shaktar Donestk will always be difficult to play at their home grounds.

As you can see, this year's tournament is wide open, and each teams has a chance of winning or at least causing a shock result or two. The draw for the group stages will inevitably be crucial to which teams qualify for the knock-out stages - and then it's all to play for.