CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2023-24 PREVIEW

Turn over now for Nick Bidwell's comprehensive team guide

- Nick Bidwell

The favourites

BAYERN MUNICH

Overdue a Champions League challenge

For all Bayern Munich's noteworthy work in the Champions League last season - not dropping a single point in the group phase (scoring 18 and conceding just twice) and knocking out Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 - what fans and decision-makers at the Allianz Arena demand above all is continental staying power, an ingredient that the Reds have singularly lacked in recent years.

Since winning the Champions League in 2020 (beating PSG 1-0 in the behind-closed-doors COVID final), Bayern have been knocked out at the quarter-final stage in each of the past three seasons and, for a club as prestigious and voraciously ambitious, this is simply not acceptable. Six-time winners of European football's top cup and runners-up on a further five occasions, Bayern set the bar higher than most. Whenever they fail to deliver in Europe, it cuts deep indeed, piling on the pressure to bounce back with a vengeance.

Within the Bayern boardroom, the conviction is that new coach Thomas Tuchel, in his first full season at the club, will prove successful in rekindling Bayern's European fire. Tuchel has the Champions League pedigree (winning the trophy with Chelsea in 2020-21), is a meticulous team-builder and tactician, and is more than equal to the task of recreating a new and improved work ethic.

Who will lead Bayern's back line?

Last season, Bayern conceded far too many goals through individual errors, so the arrival of the uncompromising South Korea centre-back Kim Min-jae, acquired for €50m from Napoli, should go a long way to stiffening their rearguard. "He does 20 unbelievable things per game, gushed former Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti.

Where must Bayern improve?