Tonight’s game promised to give one of the closest indications so far of who could become European champions this year, but in truth, nobody could’ve predicted what followed. Barcelona dissected their rivals with precise, incisive play that arguably would have torn absolutely any team in the world apart. In doing so, they confirmed their status as clear favourites for the Champions League once again, and it’d take a brave man to doubt them. With 13 goals in their last 2 league games, they are beginning to look even more menacing than they ever did in their historic 2008/09 season, and their form will be striking fear into managers across the continent.

Regardless of tonight’s result, however, it would still be naïve to completely write off Real Madrid at this stage. They will have learnt a great deal from tonight’s events, and in particular, Mourinho will now have a far better understanding of his team’s strengths and weaknesses, and possibly even his own managerial weaknesses. The biggest concern has to be the fact that he abandoned his usual “park the bus” (for want of a less horribly clichéd term) tactics for these key matches in favour of a slightly more ambitious counter attacking system, and saw his team get dismantled with relative ease. Real were exposed down both flanks, and coupled with a high defensive line, Barca always threatened to get in behind and cut the ball across goal to create more chances. Will this cause Mourinho to abandon these more ambitious tactics in future big games despite the pressure from those above him? Only time will tell, but it may be Real’s only chance of success, considering their weakness in the core areas compared to the likes of Barcelona and Chelsea.

Outside of Spain, it appears that the usual recent suspects will be challenging – almost by default. In England, Manchester United remain unbeaten and are now finally hitting their stride, having predictably struggled to find any real form in the first third of the season. Their defence looks imperious once again, Nani is in the form of his life, and with Rooney dropping deep to play behind Berbatov, the two forwards finally look capable of reaching their potential as a partnership. Chelsea have begun to stutter of late, and this has highlighted the challenge they face. When fully fit, their squad is intimidating to even look at, but remove two or three key players and suddenly they become a beatable side. For this reason, it will be absolutely essential for them to keep Lampard, Drogba, Essien, Malouda and Terry fit if they’re to have a realistic chance of toppling Europe’s elite sides for the first time. They may well struggle to keep up with the congested fixture list in the closing period of the season unless they make a couple of signings in January – David Luiz of Benfica is one player currently heavily linked with the club. Arsenal, meanwhile, appear to be suffering from the same problems that seem to plague them every year. They remain uncertain at the back and display a real lack of character whenever they have found themselves under heavy pressure, so although the quarter finals will be a minimum expectation, this will most likely be the furthest they go unless they avoid the top sides – particularly Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona.

Both of last year’s finalists; Inter and Bayern, have looked extremely underwhelming so far this season. Without the injured Arjen Robben, Bayern have looked painfully mediocre for long periods, but they still look set to top Group E, ahead of Roma. If the draw is favourable to them, they might just have a chance of reaching the semi finals, but their reliance on Robben will once again be huge. One sign for encouragement, though, is the sudden improvement of Mario Gomez. The big-money signing from Stuttgart struggled to impress in his first season at the Allianz Arena, but he has now scored 16 goals in 20 appearances this season. Inter, however, will now almost certainly finish second in Group A behind Tottenham Hotspur and this will most likely mean they have to face one of the favourites for the competition in the next round. Unless they are lucky enough to be drawn with Shakhtar or Schalke, the writing may well be on the wall for them unless they make drastic changes in the January transfer window. The squad is finally beginning to show its age, and Rafael Benitez is already under huge pressure, following a multitude of disappointing results and unacceptable performances so far this season.

I would love to be able to predict great success for Shakhtar Donetsk or Copenhagen, but truthfully speaking, it will be a colossal surprise if any team other than those already mentioned features in the Wembley final. If I had to predict an outsider to cause a few shocks, it would be Tottenham. They are absolutely desperate for a top class midfield enforcer to replace the wasteful and clumsy Wilson Palacios, and they still lack the world-renowned goalscorer they searched so hard for in the summer, but Rafael Van Der Vaart, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon have already proven they can expose just about any defence around. They have beaten Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Inter in the last 6 months or so, but under the extreme pressure of a Champions League knockout match, it would be no great surprise to see them crumble.

After failing to reach the finish line last season, Barcelona will be determined to re-claim the Champions League trophy and it’s looking increasingly likely that they will do so this year. The only hope for the rest of Europe is that Manchester United or Chelsea face them as early as possible and somehow nullify them in order to grind out a positive result over two legs. If they reach the final, there is simply no way they will be stopped in a one-off match if they reach the levels they are capable of finding.

FC Basel 1893

How They Got Here:Basel beat Vitoria de Guimaraes (also known as Vitoria SC) 2-1 on aggregate in the third round of qualifying. Basel won the Swiss League last season.

Star Performer: MF Benjamin Huggel. An experienced member of the Swiss national squad, Huggel is a strong presence in central midfield. In his first stint with Basel he would get forward and pot the odd goal but now into his 30s, Huggel plays a more conservative game and is a steadying influence in the team. That said, he did score
a couple of important goals for Basel during qualification.

Key To Success: Basel will not be counting on any points from the matches against Barcelona so they must make the most of their other group games. If they maintain their 4-1-4-1 system and play positively against Sporting and Shakhtar they could steal valuable points from those clubs. One of the important parts of their campaign will be how new recruits Jurgen Gjasula or Marcos Gelaber will settle in. One of them will need to replace right midfielder David Degen’s contributions from last season. Degen

Players In: DF Behrang Safari (transfer from Malmo FF), DF David Abraham (transfer from Gimnàstic de Tarragona), MF Jürgen Gjasula, MF Marcos Gelabert (transfer from FC St. Gallen)

Players Out: DF Daniel Majstorovic (transfer to AEK Athens), DF Koji Nakata (released), ST Vratislav Lokvenc (loan deal expired), MF David Degen (loan deal expired)

Talking Points:Majstorovic was a massive loss for Basel. Not only was he a solid presence in central defence but he also had a phenomenal scoring record. In 85 appearances for Basel he scored 25 times, mostly scoring with his head from set-pieces as well as taking penalties. A neat little fact I came across while researching this article, Majstorovic reportedly speaks seven languages: Serbo-Croat, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, German and English. He is now captain at AEK but unfortunately they were knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the last qualifying round.

One thing that has been hampering Basel lately is that a lot of their promising players end up leaving for the German Bundesliga. Among those that have left are Philipp Degen, Ivan Rakitic and Hakan Yakin.

Predicted Finish:I don’t envision good things for Basel. This is a tough grouping for them and I feel they will finish last in the group.

Shakhtar Donetsk

How They Got Here:Finished 1st in Ukrainian League; defeated Dinamo Zagreb 5-1 on aggregate in 3rd qualifying round.

Star Performer:DF Tomas Hubschman. After helping Sparta Prague make the Champions League group stages on a couple of occasions, the Czech central defender has helped shore up the Donetsk backline and led them to three league titles and two domestic cup victories since tranferring in 2004.

Key To Success:

Players In: ST Marcelo Moreno (transfer from Cruizero), DF Mykola Ischenko (transfer from FC Karpaty Lviv), GK Rustam Khudzhamov (transfer from FC Kharkiv)

Players Out: GK Jan Lastuvka (loan to West Ham United), MF Zvonimir Vukic (transfer to FC Moscow), ST Oleksiy Byelik (transfer to FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk)

Talking Points:Like many other clubs in ‘smaller’ leagues, Shaktar has lost a number of their top performing players to richer clubs over the last few seasons. Elano, Nery Castillo and Julius Aghahowa are some of the players to leave Shaktar in the past couple of seasons. Seeing what Elano has done for Manchester City it’s hard not to think that Shaktar could have an even stronger stake in this group with him still in their side.

However, the club still does have a number of top players in the side and should challenge for either second or third. Shaktar, though a Ukrainian-based club has an increasing number of foreign, and in particular Brazillian, players. For example, this past weekend Shaktar defeated FC Illychivets Mariupil 3-0 in Ukrainian Cup action with the goals coming from the Brazilian trio of DF Ilsinho, MF Jadson and ST Luiz Adriano. While there are more foreign players in the squad, it’s not all doom and gloom as four Shaktar players were in the recent Ukraine squad for World Cup qualifying: Andriy Pyatov, Oleksandr Kucher, Vyacheslav Shevchuk and Yevhen Seleznyov.

Predicted Finish:As I mentioned, I think Shaktar should finish at least in the UEFA Cup spot and may even challenge Sporting for 2nd.

FC Barcelona

How They Got Here:Finished 3rd in La Liga; defeated Wis?a Kraków 4-1 in the 3rd qualifying round.

Star Performer:Xavi. This is a player I’ve touted and heaped praise on since the inception of this website. Long underrated, Xavi is finally starting to get some of the acclaim from the mainstream media that he deserves. Named Best Player by UEFA at Euro 2008, Xavi’s passing and composure in the center of midfield are critical to the dominant ball possession that Barcelona typically enjoy.

Key To Success:Getting the new players integrated into the squad quickly. Barcelona are in a rebuilding phase and the squad has seen turnover at some key positions. It was a busy summer for the Catalans as they sold about 50m Euros worth of player rights and bought about 88m Euros worth. Barca have started their domestic campaign with a loss and a draw. Another draw or loss in their opening Champions League match may shake the confidence around the team and put pressure on new coach Josep Guardiola very early. A win will settle the squad and let them go on and play with a more relaxed attitude.

Players In: DF Dani Alves (transfer from Sevilla), MF Alexander Hleb (transfer from Arsenal), MF Seydou Keita (transfer from Sevilla), DF Gerard Piqué (transfer from Manchester United), DF Henrique (transfer from Palmeiras)

Players Out: DF Edmílson (transfer to Villarreal), FW Giovani dos Santos (transfer to Tottenham Hotspur), MF Deco (transfer to Chelsea), FW Ronaldinho (transfer to AC Milan), DF Oleguer (transfer to Ajax)

Talking Points:The biggest story, at least to start the year, will be the departure of Ronaldinho and how Barca perform without their talisman. Many will say that Lionel Messi is now the leader up front but thus far he has been injured for large stretches of the past few seasons. If he can remain healthy then I could see him making up for some of Ronaldinho’s offensive output. Bojan Krkic is another young star to keep an eye on. With his pace and dribbling skill he should see even more first team action this season.

Barca have made their worst start to a season in quite some time and their recent form has been poor. After losing the second leg in the qualifier against Wisla Krakow in Poland, Barca then failed to score against Numancia on the opening weekend of La Liga and only managed to score via a penalty kick against Racing Santander this weekend. Barca’s sharpness around the opposition goal will need to improve if they are to better last season’s domestic and Champions League records.

Predicted Finish:First place. Barcelona will have to struggle massively to finish lower in this group.

Sporting Club de Portugal

How They Got Here:Finished 2nd in Portuguese Liga — automatic berth to group stage

Star Performer:MF Joao Moutinho. Judging by the number of rumours and the dollar amounts being quoted for the 22-year-old playmaker, Sporting are lucky to have retained his services for another season. In 36 total appearances last season, Moutinho scored 7 times and created many more goals for his teammates. Moutinho turned down a move to Everton, who had bid in the neighborhood of £12m for his rights, and is thought to be more interested in going to Italy or Spain than England.

Key To Success: Like most of the other clubs in this group, it’s a case of making hay against the other teams in the group and anything gained from the two matches against Barcelona will be a major bonus.

Players In: MF Fabio Rochemback (free transfer from Middlesbrough), ST Helder Postiga (transfer from FC Porto), DF Leandro Grimi (transfer from AC Milan)

Players Out: DF Marian Had (end of loan from Lokomotiv Moscow), ST Milan Purovic (loan to Kayserispor)

Talking Points:This Sporting’s their third successive season in the UEFA Champions League group stage but they have yet to secure a place in the knockout rounds. Sporting exited last season’s competition before Christmas after finishing third in their section, behind Manchester United and AS Roma.

Sporting have one of the best sports academies in the world and in recent years have produced some of the games top players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani (now with Manchester United), Simão Sabrosa (now with Atlético de Madrid) and Hugo Viana (now with Valencia) The current squad boasts many academy graduates including Joao Moutinho, Miguel Veloso, Yannick Djaló and several others. It is a source of strength for the club and a nice bonus this season is that they have not suffered any major losses in the senior XI. They’ve retained their core and added a few veteran players such as Helder Postiga.

Predicted Finish:I think this is Sporting’s best chance to advance and if they can defeat Shaktar in both matches, they should finish 2nd.