Alan Shearer has revealed who he believes are now the favourites to win the Champions League following the end of the first knockout stage.
The Premier League still has three teams left in the 16-team draw, with Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa all finishing in the top eight sides of the new group format.
Manchester City fell to Real Madrid, losing 6-3 on aggregate with Erling Haaland failing to play a single minute in the second leg. Kylian Mbappe netted a fine hat trick to knock them out of the competition for a second season in a row.
There are still the likes of Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and Barcelona alongside the three English sides and both Madrid clubs who pose a threat to the trophy, but Shearer believes there is a clear favourite after the most recent games.
“They’re looking very dangerous, Real Madrid, after having one or two poor results in the league games,’ Shearer said on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“Two performances against City, both home and away, which will send a huge warning out to the rest of Europe in terms of teams that are left in.
“They know it’s their competition, they know how well they do and they excel in it and they have to win it.’
He was asked whether Madrid should be considered favourites, with Shearer replying with: ‘Yeah, I would put them favourites, absolutely. Definitely.
“It must be a dream, a treat, for those guys with the amount of chances that they create and the amount of ability that they’ve got,’ he added.
“So Real Madrid are very, very strong and they are, without doubt, my favourites to win.’
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Madrid’s attacking four lead the way
With a quality attack including Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior and Mbappe, the quartet have a combined 64 goals this season and Shearer was impressed with their ability to rotate and cause havoc, despite City’s lacklustre defending.
Shearer continued: “The three or four of them are brilliant at rotation so if Vinicius Junior wants to come down the middle then Kylian will go out wide. They’re all equally as good wherever they are.
“Say what you want about the defending. The defending was blummin’ awful at times from Manchester City and you can’t give anyone the amount of space that they did.
“But to give it to him [Mbappe]… and the three goals were also so very, very different. Three great finishes but very different ones.”
