As the round of 16 begins on Tuesday night, Arsenal and Aston Villa face off against PSV and Club Brugge, respectively, while Liverpool is set to play Paris Saint Germain on Wednesday. ..Continue Reading
Owen considers his former club, Liverpool, as the top contenders for the Champions League title. However, he also believes three other teams have a “real chance” of winning, with one of his previous teams ranking as the next strongest contender.
“My Champions League favourites are Liverpool, above Real Madrid,’ Owen said. “You can also look at Barcelona and Bayern Munich as having a real chance.
“There’s a handful of teams who can win it, but I’d definitely say Liverpool and Real Madrid are the two teams at the moment.”
Real Madrid, the current champions, eliminated Manchester City in the play-off round with Kylian Mbappe netting a hat-trick in the second leg.
Owen believes the burden of expectations might be significant for the French star, but he understands from his own experience that dealing with such pressure is simply part of life at the Spanish giants.
“There is huge pressure on Kylian Mbappe, but that’s Real Madrid. Managers have won the league and been sacked for not winning the Champions League,” he added, speaking to BoyleSports.
“The pressure there is to beat Barcelona and now Atletico Madrid as well, they have the best players and the best manager, you have to win everything or it feels like a failure.
“Mbappe knew the scenario before he signed, that’s the life of a top player. If he didn’t want the pressure he should’ve signed for someone else. The higher up the food chain the more pressure there is.
“He will have to fire them to the top of the league and the Champions League, but he’s not failed in doing so yet. They have a habit of coming on strong and they’ll go on a great run when everyone is it.
“They will be the last team you want to draw in the knockout stages, people have spoken about Real Madrid like they are having a disastrous season, but you’d be very brave to dismiss them now.”
