Underdogs that will excite in the Champions League this season

The Champions League brings together the best clubs in Europe to compete so we can get a champion.

It is simply the best club competition in the world, and fans from all over the globe tune in to watch its matches.

This season will be as unpredictable as ever, and this is the reason why we keep buying Champions League tickets.

The teams that would be inside the final four might be hard to predict, but most of us know the clubs we do not expect to even make the playoffs.

When these teams do just that, it becomes a story that no one saw coming, and this always happens in the Champions League.

Last season, Brest carried the impressive form that helped them sell Ligue 1 tickets into the competition and won some key games.

They started their European campaign strongly, and although they eventually began to struggle, they made the knockout stage of the tournament.

That inspired more clubs, who have now qualified for the league phase of the competition, and they will be looking to ensure that their team does well.

In this article, we discuss some of the obvious underdogs that we are backing to impress in the competition, and one of them could go as far as the quarterfinal or beyond, just like Aston Villa did last season.

Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Bilbao has qualified for the Champions League after so many years of trying so hard to make the top four in Spain.

They partly benefited from Spain having five teams in the league phase of the competition this season.

Their main star is Nico Williams, a player that Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich wanted to sign.

Athletic kept him, and he signed a ten-year deal with the club. Now, he must prove to everyone what he is capable of and why these top teams wanted to add him to their squad.

Union SG

Union SG won the Belgian league last season to continue their remarkable rise from the ashes to becoming one of the world’s top clubs.

They have been one of the most exciting clubs to follow in European football and will be looking to show what they are made of in the Champions League.

Most people will want to consider them the team that will struggle the most, but they are Belgian champions, and it makes little sense to underestimate them.

They have made this list mostly because of their brave and exciting style of play, and we believe they will be one of the most entertaining clubs in the competition’s league phase.

Olympiacos

Olympiacos has an ambitious owner who has spent so much money to bring success to the club, and he has splashed the cash on some impressive names to prepare them for the UCL.

The likes of Yusuf Yazıcı, Ayoub El Kaabi, and Christos Mouzakitis, among others, will be lining up for them in this competition, and they will surely do well.

In 2024, they won the Europa Conference League and have continued to develop as a team, which has helped them to compete in the Champions League this season.

Bodo/Glimt

Bodo played in the semifinal of the Europa League last season, which was impressive, and Tottenham deserves credit for knocking them out of the competition at that stage.

Bodo had appeared unstoppable, and they were sure that they would be in the final, which probably might have been more exciting.

After almost 20 years, they became the first Norwegian club to go past the qualifying stage of the Champions League.

Their fans would be eager to watch their game against Manchester City at home, but they will be more interested in winning other tough games and reaching the knockout phase.

It will be a long ride, but anyone who followed them in the Europa League last season will know that Bodo is a team to take seriously, especially when they play at home.

Slavia Prague

Slavia Prague has been a regular in the Champions League, and each time they qualify for the competition, they show their worth.

They might finish at the bottom of their group in the previous format, but they always have a game against a top opponent in which they prove to be too good to handle.

In this league format, they will have more opponents, so there will be more games that they can show how good they are, but can they beat Arsenal at home in November?

Atalanta

2024 Europa League winner, Atalanta, has undergone so much change in the last few months, having first lost their long-term manager.

Gian Piero Gasperini is now trying to make AS Roma a top club again. They have replaced him with Ivan Juric, who was relegated with Southampton from the Premier League last season.

La Dea is likely to find a new identity, and there might be some changes in their style of play under the new manager.

However, they still have some very good players, so we do not expect much to change in their style.

They are one of the best clubs to watch when they are in full flow, and this Champions League could be the next European tournament where they go deep.

Benfica

Benfica knocked out Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce at the playoff stage, which cost the Portuguese manager his job.

They played at the Club World Cup and were one of the best teams in that tournament, so they will want to make an impression in the Champions League.

Most Portuguese clubs lose their key men during the summer transfer window, and Benfica is not exempt, but they have also signed some top players.

The first goal to achieve is to overtake Sporting Clube and become the latest Portuguese champions, but we also expect them to do well in the Champions League.

Bruno Lage is a very experienced manager, and he will outclass some coaches during the league phase of the competition and take his team far.

Villarreal

Villarreal has a European pedigree, and their current team is bringing back old memories of the times they competed and won the Europa League.

They have also recently reached the quarterfinal of the Champions League, where Liverpool knocked them out.

This summer, they bolstered their squad with some really good players, including Thomas Partey, who was a monster in Arsenal’s midfield before leaving them as a free agent.

Villarreal tickets are among the top-selling in La Liga, so they are surely one of the underdogs who could go far in the competition.