Who Will Win the 2025 Champions League?
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It’s been a crazy UEFA Champions League campaign.
After years of planning, the new UCL format — where it’s now a huge 36-team league instead of the traditional 8 groups of four — finally came into play. At first, most fans weren’t too happy, but the unpredictably and freshness of it all has sort of won them over. Even though they say change in football is a bad thing, it’s fair to say this might be one of the rare exceptions.
Throughout the 2024-25 UCL, there’s been plenty of shock results to go with it. Newcastle destroyed Bayern Munich at home, AC Milan pulled off a shock win over Madrid at the Bernabéu, and even Celtic were able to thump RB Leipzig 3-1 after turning over an early deficit. That’s just from the group stage, too, with Arsenal fresh off crushing Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate across the quarter-finals. The list of great games has been endless.
So, now that we’re fast-approaching the final itself, here’s how the semi-finals are shaping up:
➜⚽ PSG vs Arsenal
➜⚽ Inter vs Barcelona
When it comes to which team is actually going to win this year’s Champions League, most pundits and fans are understandably going with Barcelona. After all, it seems like the Spanish club already has one hand on the trophy after an incredible UCL campaign while storming to the top of LaLiga domestically. They’re the team to beat, that’s for sure — but could one of the other teams cause an upset?
UEFA 2025 Champions League: Who Will Win?
PSG. Arsenal. Inter. Barcelona. That’s an elite semi-final lineup on any day of the week. And what’s interesting is that any of these teams could potentially win it, so let’s take a closer look at what their chances are and whether a potential upset is a real possibility.
1. Barcelona
To nobody’s surprise, Barcelona are the current 11/5 favourites to win this year’s Champions League. Most fans will be betting on them and some will even use software to track matched betting. Why? The club is in red-hot form, Pedri has been absolutely sensational from midfield, while the likes of Raphinha (who has 12 goals and 7 assists in this year’s UCL) and veteran Robert Lewandowski have also been on top form. Sure, there’s slight cause for concern about Barcelona’s defensive frailties following a 2nd-leg 3-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund in the quarter- finals, but culés shouldn’t be panicking just yet. They’re still through to the semi-finals on aggregate and it’s simply an issue that Hansi Flick will have to address over the coming weeks if he wants to take Barca all the way.
2. PSG
The next team most likely to win the Champions League are French giants PSG. After overcoming Aston Villa in the quarter-finals, PSG have got some serious momentum heading into their semi-final clash with Arsenal. All credit for this has to go to Luis Enrique, who has come into PSG and transformed the club from top to bottom. The days of catering to big-name players like Mbappé, Messi, and Neymar have finally been left behind, as PSG now look like a serious team unit after years of relying on individual stardom. It’s still going to be a huge ask of Luis Enrique to win PSG’s first ever Champions League trophy, but if Ousmane Dembélé and co. are on-form then there’s no reason why they can’t do it.
3. Arsenal
couple of seasons — which has seen Arsenal push Manchester City to the limit in back-to-back title races — there weren’t many people out there who would have had Mikel Arteta’s men down as potential UCL semi-finalists, yet here we are. After somehow beating Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, Arsenal are now set to play PSG in what looks set to be a classic at the Parc des Princes, so all eyes will be on Mikel Arteta and whether he can get the most out of his Gunners on football’s biggest stage. The pressure is certainly on and it will be interesting to see if Arsenal can pull-off another shock victory to make it all the way to the final. Based on how they played against Real Madrid, it’s a realistic possibility.
4. Inter
Finally, there’s Inter. It was 10 years ago when Inter last won a Champions League trophy, yet they’ve always been in-and-around the competition since then (having most recently made it to the 2022-23 final against Manchester City). The club is still deploying its iconic 3-5-2 formation under Simone Inzaghi, too, so they’ll definitely be looking to frustrate Barcelona in the semi-final. They also have the explosive Lautaro Martínez up top and the superb deep-lying playmaker Hakan Çalhanoğlu in midfield, so it’s not like Inter can’t hurt you going forward. They’re this year’s dark horse, that’s for sure — but overcoming Barcelona in the semi-finals might be asking a little too much of Inzaghi considering how in-form the Spanish team is.
Barca Are Most Likely to Win the UCL, Although An Upset Could Happen
The 2025 UCL trophy has Barcelona written all over it. Based on how everything is lined up, the most likely outcome is that Barca will overcome Inter over 2 legs before eventually coming up against PSG in the final. It’s the Champions League, so anything can happen, but momentum is everything in these competitions and Barca’s current squad and attacking prowess should be more than enough to land them the trophy, especially with Pedri commanding the midfield and
experienced forward Lewandoski leading the line. They have the perfect mix of youth, tenacity, and experience, too, which is ultimately why it looks like this is Barca’s year. With Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has proven time and time again that he struggles under pressure, whereas Inter are lacking in squad depth and rely so much on counter-attacking that it makes it extremely difficult for them to go all the way in a competition like this. Of course, an upset could always happen,
Summary
May 31, 2025. The Allianz Arena. Mark it down on your calendar, because that’s when this year’s UCL 2025 final will be. It looks set to be another classic, with the likely final being between Barcelona and PSG. Both teams will want their name on the trophy, especially considering this is the first campaign where the new format has been introduced. One thing for sure is that we’ll be watching May 31 — and we’re sure you will be as well.
- Champions League 2024/2025
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