Graeme Souness rates Arsenal and Man City’s Champions League chances (Photo: Getty / Visionhaus)
Arsenal or Manchester City will win the Champions League because rival European leagues are ‘nowhere near as good as the Premier League’.
That is the opinion of Liverpool legend Graeme Souness after the draw for the UCL round of 16 took place on Monday.
Holders City got the most favourable draw and will take on FC Copenhagen, while Arsenal are up against Porto.
They are the only English clubs left in the competition after Manchester United and Newcastle finished bottom of their groups.
Since the groups were drawn, there have been four main favourites to lift the Champions League trophy: The Citizens, the Gunners, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
But Souness rates the Premier League sides’ chances very highly, saying he has ‘question marks’ over the rest of Europe’s top-flights.
Asked what he thought the standout tie of the last-16 was, Souness told talkSPORT: ‘I always like to watch Bayern play because they always try and win games, Real Madrid are the same.
2023/24 Champions League winner odds:
Man City – 21/10
Bayern Munich – 4/1
Real Madrid – 11/2
Arsenal – 6/1
PSG – 12/1
Barcelona – 14/1
Inter Milan – 18/1
Atletico Madrid – 20/1
Dortmund – 33/1
Napoli – 40/1
Real Sociedad – 50/1
Porto – 66/1
RB Leipzig – 66/1
PSV – 150/1
Lazio – 150/1
FC Copenhagen – 250/1
‘Inter [Milan] vs Atletico [Madrid] could be a case of who blinks first with the start of those games being about not wanting to lose rather than going on the front foot and trying to win it from day one.
‘Maybe this is an enormous compliment to the Premier League but I look at Spanish football and Italian football and German football – then there’s PSG who are not the same team – and I’ve got question marks about the leagues.
‘They’re nowhere near as good as our league. There’s not the same intensity and I’m not sure if they’ve got that desire that our players show.
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‘I think that with Arsenal and Man City, we’ve got the best teams. Looking at them, I think that our league is so good now that most of our teams are the outstanding favourites. Maybe first and second or first and third.’
If the English sides were to make it to the final it would be very fitting as it’s due to place at Wembley on 1st June 2024.
There have been three all-English Champions League finals in history: Manchester United vs Chelsea in 2008, Liverpool vs Tottenham in 2019, and Chelsea vs Manchester City in 2021.
MORE : Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson explains how his ‘masterplan’ earned a draw at Manchester City
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