The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League is underway in its new format and Matchday 1 has concluded with Real Madrid launching their title defence, while heavyweights Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain began the match victoriously. After a first round packed with goals, drama and storylines, we asked our writers Gab Marcotti, Mark Ogden and Alex Kirkland to answer some of our burning questions.

Does the new model mean that there will be more defeats like Bayern 9:2 Zagreb or Celtic 5:1 Bratislava? And is it right that the teams are pushing up the score?

Ogden: I’ll answer the second part of the question first: I have no problem with teams scoring points. It’s a league competition, goal difference could be decisive in the end and as brutal as it sounds, that’s the reality of life at the top. If it’s a knockout cup match between teams from three or four leagues, then you don’t humiliate the smaller team by scoring a high result. But the 32 teams in the Champions League are in a league competition, so tough luck, move on.

As for the first part, I see no difference between the new model and the prospect of more defeats. Bayern could have faced Dinamo Zagreb in the old group stage and scored nine goals, so let’s put aside the idea that the new format will give us bigger wins. Arsenal beat Lens 6-0 in last season’s group stage, while Atletico Madrid beat Celtic by the same scoreline. A year earlier, Liverpool beat Rangers 7-1 and Napoli won 6-1 at Ajax. So there’s really nothing unusual about Bayern and Celtic’s results this week.

Marcotti: I don’t understand… why should the new model reward defeats? Goal difference was an issue in the old group stage too. If anything, you could argue that it matters less with eight games. Also, it’s one thing if Bayern beat Zagreb and another if Celtic beat Slovan Bratislava. There are different levels of resource imbalance there.

As for getting a higher score, I guess that’s a cultural thing and a matter of showing respect to an opponent. In some cultures, you play hard until the end and score as many goals as you can. In others, like mine, there’s no point in running up the score and making the opponent look bad once the game is won (and there’s no particular incentive to score more goals because goal difference isn’t rewarded). What I find pathetic is when teams run up the score when an opponent’s player has been sent off. It’s frankly unnecessary.

Kirkland: As Mark said, the Champions League has always seen high scores. Real Madrid scored five goals against Celtic in 2022, five against Shakhtar Donetsk in 2021, six against Galatasaray in 2019 and five against Viktoria Plzen in 2018. There are countless examples. In a competition that often pits Europe’s biggest and most expensive teams against the champions of far less wealthy leagues, that’s inevitable. And it’s OK to run up the score. It’s sport. They’re professionals. It would be disrespectful to do otherwise.

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What Jürgen Klinsmann took away from Man City’s game against Inter Milan

Jürgen Klinsmann believes that Manchester City and Inter are well positioned and expects both teams to go far in the Champions League.

This European season will be long and tiring for the players. Which team has the best players who can rotate in and make an impression?

Ogden: The obvious answer here is Manchester City and Real Madrid, but let’s take a closer look at this season’s new format and explain why it’s not quite as grueling as some might think. Why? Because big teams have more opportunities to rotate their squads and take it easy. They know they’ll qualify for the knockout stages unless they’re on an incredible losing streak, and so can take some games less seriously than they might in a traditional group stage.

City can take the second team to Slovan Bratislava on Matchday 2 and win. Even if they don’t, City will still go through. And manager Pep Guardiola also knows he won’t have to field all of his big players against Sparta Prague or Club Brugge. The bigger games against PSG and Juventus will require a stronger team, but with the top clubs having so many chances at this stage, we’ll see many of them treating some games like early rounds of the Carabao Cup, which won’t be great for spectacle.

Marcotti: I think there are two different factors at play here. One is rotation once you’ve secured qualification. In the old format, this regularly happened on matchday 6 (and sometimes on matchday 5). In this format, it’s supposed to be less attractive because clubs are looking at their ranking (I’m honestly not really convinced that will be the case). The other factor is the teams, which are likely to rotate from the start. And this is where a team like Inter (and to a lesser extent Atletico Madrid) will have an advantage.

When you have teams that are used to fielding the same XI almost every week and suddenly you have four or five new faces, it’s going to have an impact, even if they’re all stars. But when you have teams – like Inter – that rotate throughout the season, there’s a certain interchangeability. We saw that on Matchday 1 when Inter travelled to City and Simone Inzaghi had no problem putting Lautaro Martínez, Denzel Dumfries, Benjamin Pavard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan on the bench. In a league like this, that can give you an advantage. But honestly, that’s all hot air at the moment: once the knockout phase starts, you’ll see the best XIs.

Kirkland: Real Madrid’s squad is strong, no doubt about it. On Tuesday against Stuttgart, Éder Militão, Luka Modric, Arda Güler, Endrick and Andriy Lunin were on the bench – even though David Alaba, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz were all injured. This is almost an alternative eleven that could compete in the Champions League.

Coach Carlo Ancelotti has already spoken about wanting to give players individual mini-breaks over the course of the season, so he will rotate. Otherwise, Atletico Madrid’s squad is the strongest it has been for years. And Barcelona’s squad is stronger than you might think, considering the quality of the young players and the number of players – Ronald Araújo, Gavi, Fermín López, Frenkie de Jong, Dani Olmo – who are currently unavailable.

Several Americans have shown their strengths in the games, including Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic. Who impressed you the most and why?

Ogden: I was impressed with Christian Pulisic’s goal for AC Milan against Liverpool. Great run, great finish, but that was about the best he could do on the night. Still, a stunning goal at the San Siro against Liverpool is not a bad contribution.

Marcotti: He talked about Pulisic, so I’ll talk about McKennie. Juventus tried to offload him in the summer, not because he was terrible, but mainly because they were in cost-cutting mode, he wasn’t playing up to his salary, and he was a year away from free agency. They did consider a new contract, but it was effectively a pay cut, which, let’s be honest, can be a bit humiliating.

McKennie didn’t want to leave and basically bet on himself: that he would get enough playing time to be able to leave as a free agent next summer (and maybe even get a pay rise). That’s to his credit, and to Thiago Motta’s credit for giving him playing time after the transfer window closed. And he rewarded the coach with a goal in the win against PSV.

Kirkland: McKennie is the one who stands out, not only for his goal – which was well taken – but for his overall performance. Otherwise, I had never seen Malik Tillman play and thought he looked pretty decent for PSV.

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Nicol: Liverpool were “totally dominant” against AC Milan

Stevie Nicol and Craig Burley react to Liverpool’s dominant performance after conceding the first goal against Christian Pulisic and AC Milan.

Which team was the most impressive and which was the most disappointing?

Ogden: I’d say Celtic are the most impressive team. Scoring five goals against Slovan Bratislava was one thing, but the atmosphere at Celtic Park highlighted what the Champions League means to teams outside the small group of likely winners. Two wins will probably be enough to qualify for the play-off stage and Celtic are now halfway there. This new format gives clubs like Celtic a chance to reach the knockout stages, so the final few matchdays could be as exciting as UEFA hopes.

Least impressive? AC Milan. It’s sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the world – only Real Madrid have won more European titles than Milan – put in such a miserable performance against Liverpool. The days of Milan dominating the competition are not that long ago, but they still seem a million years away.

Marcotti: So in the last 30 months only one team has stopped Manchester City from scoring at the Etihad. That was Arsenal in the Premier League last year and now Inter have achieved the feat. And I think that was impressive because Inter had their own chances (City too, but that’s inevitable).

The most disappointing was certainly Real Madrid. Yes, they won, but Thibaut Courtois had to make some incredible saves and the third goal was a garbage-time gift for Endrick. So far, the front three of Vinícius, Kylian Mbappé and Rodrygo, plus Jude Bellingham, are not working. I thought that, given the players Stuttgart lost in the summer, this would be the game in which Madrid could at least score points offensively. They didn’t.

Kirkland: I was impressed by two teams whose performances were worth more than the results they achieved: Girona and Stuttgart. Girona played really well in their CL debut away to PSG and were very unlucky not to leave Paris with at least a point. They conceded a goal in the 90th minute due to a mistake by goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga. PSG coach Luis Enrique said afterwards that the game against Girona was “worse than giving birth”. And yes, Stuttgart ended up losing 3-1 to Real Madrid, but they deserved much more because they played bravely, aggressively and created many chances. The biggest disappointment: Manchester City – Inter 0-0.