2024/25 Champions League Predictions for Matchday 2

Arsenal vs. PSG

PSG don’t feel like a legitimate Champions League threat in an era without Kylian Mbappe, who seemed to be the only reason why the Parisians were threats to reach the semifinals after Neymar was fully washed on the beach like a sullen hermit crab without a shell.

Joao Neves gives PSG reason for optimism, but when your standout attacking player is Ousmane Dembele heading into the year 2025, you don’t really stand much of a chance against a Premier League title contender.

Arsenal have their own problems after a surprisingly complacent summer transfer window from an attacking perspective, but, then again, you don’t need much more than Bukayo Saka and the Champions League version of Gabriel Jesus to dismantle PSG’s defense.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 PSG

Aston Villa vs. Bayern Munich

Aston Villa vs. Bayern Munich is the Champions League match I am most looking forward to watching this week, because it pits two well-coached teams with clear philosophies and great mixes of up-and-coming and veteran talent against each other.

Bayern Munich are in an entirely different class of football from Aston Villa, especially when it comes to big-game experience and game-changing playmaking. Jamal Musiala is going to show Aston Villa levels in the end, but the Lions of the Premier League will also show that they belong at this stage, even in defeat.

Prediction: Aston Villa 3-4 Bayern Munich

Salzburg vs. Brest

It feels senseless to type out more than a few lines about a match almost nobody will be watching or care about on Tuesday night, but Salzburg do produce top talents and Liverpool loanee Stefan Bajcetic as well as playmaker Oscar Gloukh are worth watching.

Brest should scrape this one out by virtue of their experience in Ligue 1. The trio of Romain Del Castillo, Ludovic Ajoruqe, and Romain Faivre are legitimately one of the better groupings in French football.

Prediction: Salzburg 1-2 Brest

Stuttgart vs. Sparta Prague

Nobody should underestimate Stuttgart, who accomplished the same feat as Bayer Leverkusen in the 2023/24 season by finishing above Bayern Munich, buoyed by the best striker in Germany in Serhou Guirassy.

Stuttgart lost Guirassy this summer and their best defender, Waldemar Anton, to Borussia Dortmund but proceeded to hand the most underwhelming talent-stealers in Bundesliga history a 5-1 drubbing. Underestimate Stuttgart at your peril.

Prediction: Stuttgart 4-0 Sparta Prague

PSV vs. Sporting CP

Honestly, a battle between PSV and Sporting CP in the Champions League sounds awfully nice and rivals Bayer Leverkusen vs. AC Milan, Arsenal vs. PSG, and Dortmund vs. Celtic as one of the best battles of the matchweek.

Sporting have a couple of center backs all the big boys in Europe are after, but the real prize looks like striker Viktor Gyokeres, who already has 10 league goals and is doing his best to make Arsenal regret not signing him this summer.

He, Trincao, and Pote are a potent attacking trio to which PSV can counter with a quartet of Johan Bakayoko, Hirving Lozano, American Malik Tillman, and former Barcelona striker Luuk de Jong.

There’s not much to separate these sides, and the only thing I can almost guarantee you is that it’s going to be a cracker for a neutral.

Prediction: PSV 3-3 Sporting CP

Bayer Leverkusen vs. AC Milan

AC Milan look much better, bouncing back from an opening defeat in the Champions League to Liverpool with a massive derby win over Inter and a 3-0 shelling of Lecce in Serie A.

Christian Pulisic has suddenly become Milan’s most reliable player, but that statement doesn’t actually bode well against a Bayer Leverkusen side that honestly looks even stronger and more consistent than Inter.

Leverkusen split the points with Bayern this past weekend in the Bundesliga, but you got the feeling watching both Bundesliga powers go head to head that Leverkusen have clearly fallen behind the Vincent Kompany-coached Reds.

This will come as a disappointment to Leverkusen, but even with a more balanced squad and better overall players, they aren’t all that much better than Milan. I smell a tie here.

Prediction: Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 AC Milan

Slovan Bratislava vs. Manchester City

Putting Manchester City and Erling Haaland against Slovan Bratislava looks like a recipe for disaster. If Haaland doesn’t score five goals against these guys, Pep Guardiola should ban him from eating kebabs (his favorite food) for a week.

Prediction: Slovan Bratislava 1-7 Manchester City

Inter Milan vs. Red Star Belgrade

Inter Milan. It’s not even a contest.

Prediction: Inter Milan 4-0 Red Star Belgrade

Dortmund vs. Celtic

Dortmund need to be on upset alert here, because even without Matt O’Riley, Celtic are still a side no top team wants to face in the Champions League. And let’s e honest, BVB’s run to last year’s final was a total fluke, since they looked so bad in the Bundesliga itself.

They haven’t looked much better this season either. Stuttgart and even Bochum tore them apart defensively, and as much as I’d like to praise Karim Adeyemi for his rebound this season, Serhou Guirassy is the only attacker who has proven himself on Dortmund.

Prediction: Dortmund 2-2 Celtic

Barcelona vs. BSC Young Boys

Barcelona have been the best team in LaLiga this season, but they got absolutely hammered by Osasuna 4-2 this past weekend, showing Hansi Flick and his men that there’s still a lot of work to be done in Catalunya before the Blaugrana are considered an elite team again.

BSC Young Boys are a great get-right matchup for Barcelona. Dani Olmo and friends had better put up five on the Swiss side.

Prediction: Barcelona 5-2 BSC Young Boys

Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Atalanta

Shakhtar Donetsk held their own against Bologna, and while Atalanta may be in the same league, they are a different caliber of opponent to the Rossoblu, especially in the Champions League.

Atalanta are one of the most dangerous attacking teams in Europe with Charles De Ketelaere and Ademola Lookman continuing to rule highlight reels while Mateo Retegui has put four past keepers in five games as Gianluca Scamacca’s replacement.

Any neutral fan wanting to tune into this game – likely because they hate all the other teams playing on Wednesday night – should hope for another Lazar Samardzic banger.

Prediction: Shakhtar 1-3 Atalanta

Girona vs. Feyenoord

Feyenoord still have plenty of talent despite a bit of a brain drain this summer, as the clinical Santiago Gimenez is still at striker and David Hancko is taking even more souls here in 2024/25.

As for Girona, they lost some stars this summer, too, in Yan Couto (Dortmund) and Artem Dovbyk (Roma), and they haven’t actually won a game since the beginning of September against lowly Sevilla.

Girona still have a lot of quality (look at Miguel Gutierrez) and the same great coach leading them, but when you stack these two teams up, I actually like Feyenoord better, especially with Gimenez at striker.

Prediction: Girona 2-3 Feyenoord

Sturm Graz vs. Club Bruges

If you are watching this game, what the heck is wrong with you.

Prediction: Sturm Graz 0-1 Club Bruges

Benfica vs. Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid stole a point away from Real Madrid at the death and honestly deserved to beat their more hyped crosstown rivals. It’s debatable if their expensive summer of activity was worth it, because Atleti are still well behind the equation in the title race, mostly thanks to Barcelona’s improvements under Hansi Flick.

Benfica don’t ever make any real noise in the Champions League, but they tend to be the team none of the big boys want to face either. If I had to pick out a best player, it would be 20-year-old center back Antonio Silva, who might actually be better than Leny Yoro and should have been signed by Real Madrid last summer; it’s just that Real Madrid isn’t quite as smart at timing their non-obvious signings as they’d like you to think.

Prediction: Benfica 1-1 Atletico Madrid

Dinamo Zagreb vs. Monaco

Dinamo Zagreb let nine past Bayern Munich, and while Monaco isn’t Bayern, they have actually been one of the best teams in European football so far this season on a statistical basis.

Monaco have a team that would line up pretty well with a most underrated world football XI with Lamine Camara, Denis Zakaria, Thilo Kehrer, Aleksandr Golovin, Vanderson, Caio Henrique, Mohammed Salisu, Eliesse Ben Seghir, Wilfried Singo, Folarin Balogun, Takumi Minamino, and Philipp Kohn absolutely dogging Ligue 1 right now.

Prediction: Dinamo Zagreb 0-4 Monaco

Lille vs. Real Madrid

Sorry Lille, but this is the Champions League. And this is Real Madrid. You don’t stand a chance, except for the one time around the 60th minute when Antonio Rudiger forgets he’s in a football match and gives away a stupid goal. Seriously, I have no idea why Real Madrid fans rate him higher than Aurelien Tchouameni, Dani Carvajal, or even Ferland Mendy playing center back.

Prediction: Lille 1-3 Real Madrid

Liverpool vs. Bologna

Bologna have won one game since Aug. 25. Liverpool are the best team in the Premier League right now and have Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz playing on either wing. This one could get ugly.

Prediction: Liverpool 5-0 Bologna

RB Leipzig vs. Juventus

Thank you from the depths of my soul, Mr. Thiago Motta, for making the literal biggest club in Italy actually watchable in 2024. Better than that, Juventus are a genuinely good team and should honestly be the favorites to win the Scudetto back in 2025.

RB Leipzig, though, are also a great team and have two better strikers than Dusan Vlahovic in Lois Openda and Benjamin Sesko, because those two guys don’t have a beyond awful game where they completely ghost every three matches.

The Bundesliga is so far ahead of Serie A right now that I’d back the third-best team in Germany over the second-best team in Italy right now. Sorry, Juve, but you guys should have either kept Federico Chiesa and Matias Soule or actually replaced them both.

Prediction: RB Leipzig 2-1 Juventus