The Champions League is back, meaning PSG and/or Man City’s doomed projects start again – The Warm-Up

TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES Every year, around about now, the Warm-Up tries but pretty much fails to resist typing out “The Chaaaampions”, and in breaking the fourth wall we have just gone ahead and mentioned it there anyway. So get ready for the music, get ready for countless tweets featuring arms with goosebumps at the prospect of hearing that anthem playing out, because the Champions League is back tonight! Ad Now as you know there can only ever be one winner each season (breaking news) and the tale has become a familiar one down the years.

Thirty-two sides battle it out in the group stages – a number set to increase to 36 from 2024 – before Real Madrid end up lifting the trophy. Champions LeagueHow to watch Sevilla v Manchester City in the Champions LeagueA DAY AGO That has been the case for five of the past nine seasons, and just as Los Blancos' dominance appeared to be slipping in the competition, the 2022 triumph – against the odds, but more specifically after many a knockout deficit – will have felt sweeter than most.

This was a victory for old money against new, the self-styled Kings of Europe overcoming the pretenders, the new, state-owned, kids on the block. Real beat the new-money Chelsea in the quarter-finals, but it was their victories over the even-newer-money duo PSG and Manchester City either side that truly rocked the boat.

Qatar-backed PSG and UAE-backed City are both dreaming of Champions League glory, but all the while Real continue to make that a reality for themselves, even when deemed underdogs against such projects. All three teams – who begin their group-stage campaigns tonight – won their respective domestic titles last season, but it was Real who conquered Europe, leaving PSG and City to pick up the