Former Real Madrid boss picks his favourite for this season’s UEFA Champions League | OneFootball

Former Real Madrid and Spain manager Vicente del Bosque has said that the Los Blancos are favourites to win the UEFA Champions League this season.

“Real Madrid are favourites to win the Champions League,” del Bosque told Spanish publication MARCA (h/t Madrid Zone).

Real Madrid, already a 14-time European champion, have been drawn to face Chelsea in the quarter-final of this year’s Champions League. The Merengues started their title defence with an impressive 3-0 win over Celtic on Matchday 1 of the group stage tie.

The team went on to beat RB Leipzig 2-0 followed by a 2-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk before stumbling along the road. After three consecutive wins, Madrid were held to a 1-1 draw by the Ukrainian team before losing 2-3 against Leipzig.

A confident 5-1 win over Celtic on the final matchday, however, assured them of a top-place finish and a spot in the round of 16. In February, when they lock horns with Liverpool, Madrid once again showed that despite having an ageing squad, they are no pushovers.

Despite going 0-2 down within the first 15 minutes, the Los Blancos went on to win the game 5-2, courtesy of goals coming from Vinicius Jr., Eder Militao and Karim Benzema.

Having a three-goal cushion heading into the second leg allowed Madrid to go easy and a 78th-minute goal from Benzema allowed Madrid to beat Liverpool 6-2 on aggregate.

Up next for them lies a tricky test against Chelsea. Although the Blues haven’t been prolific in front of the goal lately, they have eliminated Borussia Dortmund from the competition.

Meanwhile, former Madrid player Luis Figo is of the opinion that although one can never discount Madrid from the Champions League, the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munich are his favourites.

“In the Champions League, you always have to count on Real Madrid, but my favourite is between Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Inter Milan have it a little more complicated and my level of favouritism is a little lower,” the Portuguese was quoted by MARCA.