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After a long summer break, the 32 strongest teams of the Old Continent start the battle for the most prestigious club football trophy - the Champions League cup.
The title defending "Barcelona", nine-time winners of the tournament Madrid "Real", English football leader "Man Utd", Italian champions "Milan" and many other teams promise another intriguing season, with the finish scheduled for May next year in Munich.
CBC sports journalist Nigel Reed suggests looking at what can be expected from the group stage starting on Tuesday. First of all, your attention - E, F, G and H groups, whose teams will play their first matches on Tuesday.
Group E: Leverkusen "Bayer" (Germany), London "Chelsea" (England), "Genk" (Belgium), "Valencia" (Spain)
Youthful Andre Villas-Boas won the Europa League last season, but will he be able to repeat this success in the elite tournament?
Unhappy that the coach moved to London's "Chelsea", Porto president claimed to see fear in Boas to "face off" in the Champions League with the Portuguese champions. However, success is not guaranteed for Chelsea either: even Boas' teacher Jose Mourinho failed to bring the trophy to England.
Even without main defender Juan Matos, who, by the way, moved to Chelsea, Valencia seems to be the most serious contender to take the second place.
Perhaps Leverkusen reached the final ten years ago, but in recent seasons they have not been able to come close to such success. It is unlikely that Michael Ballack's experience will allow them to hope to repeat past results, and "Genk", without the heavily injured main defender Torben Joneleit, will be the underdog.
Group F: London "Arsenal", Dortmund "Borussia" (Germany), "Marseille" (France), Piraeus "Olympiakos" (Greece)
Some experts say that "Arsenal"'s best days are behind them. The results in the Champions League seem to confirm this: in 2009 the club reached the semifinals, but then gradually declined and only reached the quarterfinals last season.
The loss of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri is practically impossible to compensate for, although Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun will try to replace them. In order to achieve good results, Arsenal must rely on Robin van Persie's goals.
"Marseille" and German champion "Borussia" will compete for the second ticket to the next stage. Beautiful attacking football of Dortmund impressed Germany last season, but the start of the new season and the results suggest that neither at home nor in Europe it will be so easy anymore.
"Olympiakos" reached the quarterfinals last season, but in this group they should fight at the bottom. If the Greeks are dangerous at home, the results away will not allow them to take a high position.
Prediction: 1. "Arsenal" 2. "Marseille" 3. "Borussia" 4. "Olympiakos"
Group G: Nicosia APOEL (Cyprus), "Porto" (Portugal), Donetsk "Shakhtar" (Ukraine), St. Petersburg "Zenit" (Russia)
Two questions arise: will the Ukrainians be able to repeat last season's success and will "Porto"'s victories not end with the loss of the coach? Time will tell, but both teams are serious contenders to advance to the quarterfinals.
"Shakhtar" memorably beat "Roma" twice last season and stumbled only against the powerful "Barcelona" club, so Luiz Adriano and Eduardo will hope for no less success.
Andre Villas-Boas won three trophies with "Porto". However, the Portuguese was lured by "Chelsea" money, so the country's champions will have a difficult task, especially after selling main striker Falcao.
"Zenit" returns to the Champions League led by the famous Italian Luciano Spalletti, with intentions to at least step into the quarterfinals. The autsider will be APOEL, the eleventh, who was not an easy nut to crack for all opponents last season.
Prediction: 1. "Shakhtar" 2. "Porto" 3. "Zenit" 4. APOEL
Group H: "Milan", "Barcelona" (Spain), BATE Borisov (Belarus), Plzen "Viktoria" (Czech Republic)
Probably the most interesting match in the entire first stage will take place in this group: Italian champions "Milan" will face the strongest European team "Barcelona". There is no doubt that these clubs will share the top spots.
Even before the start of the season, "Barcelona" is the favorite of the entire tournament. They will seriously aim to defend the trophies won since 1990 - back then it was "Milan" who accomplished this task.
Moreover, the Catalans have only strengthened this summer: they regained the excellent midfielder and scorer Cesc Fabregas, and also invited Chilean Alexis Sanchez. However, this winger will not play for some time due to injury.
"Milan" won the cup in 2007, but then failed to reach even the quarterfinals three times. After winning the Italian championship, Massimiliano Allegri's team has no shortage of ambitions to regain glory in Europe.
BATE, eliminating "Ekranas" in the qualification tournament, and "Viktoria" will be like spectators in this group, who have a great opportunity to test their strength against powerful and famous clubs.
Prediction: 1. "Barcelona" 2. "Milan" 3. BATE 4. "Viktoria"
