Champions League

Spot on from Tom here as Jose Mourinho’s Inter won in Athens 2-0.

A new feel to the Champions League this year with four teams making their debuts in Europe’s elite club competition and I can’t wait for the group stages to start. CFR Cluj and Anorthosis are in action on Tuesday, AaB and BATE 24 hours later and it will be interesting to see how they fare against the best the continent has to offer.

Premier League representation on opening night is provided by old foes Liverpool and Chelsea and they both face French opposition. The Reds, surely buoyed by victory over Manchester United on Saturday, visit Marseille while Chelsea host Bordeaux. The Anfield club clearly have the greater task, Felipe Scolari should start with a fairly routine home victory, but neither game appeals from a betting point of view and I’ll be looking elsewhere.

On what seems a tricky night, the only value appears to be in the Greek capital and I take Inter Milan, now coached by the masterful Jose Mourinho of course, to get off to a winning start. The odds against looks pretty tempting and I think the the Italian champions will return with three points from their clash with Panathinaikos.

Having expressed in this column over the past three seasons or so my view on the general underestimation of sides from Greece’s Super League it was a shock to see Olympiacos, by far the best club side the country has to offer, fail in their bid to qualify for the group stages. Panathinakos edged past a weak Sparta Prague team and perhaps the Greek sides won’t quite be up to scratch this season.

We will have to wait and see, of course, but with Jose in town things are never going to be easy and he has a wealth of talent at his disposal. An attacking trio of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hernan Crespo and a rejuvenated Adriano can produce goals from anywhere and they surely have the most experienced squad of any of the 32 Champions League sides in the competition.

The likes of Zanetti, Vieira and Figo have years of top level European football under their belts but the Portuguese maestro has added some flair over the summer too, with the acquisitions of Muntari and Queresma, and he’ll be looking for the three-time defending Serie A champions to mount a serious challenge for the biggest prize of all.