European Football Preview 2023/24

Most of Europe’s top competitions will return to action by the second or third week of August after a well-deserved two month break. As usual, football in England makes an earlier return than most European leagues and this is no different this year, with the season opening Community Shield taking place on the 6th of August.

When it comes to league action however, the English PL is joined by Ligue 1 and La Liga with its first fixture being on the 11th of August. As for Italian Serie A and the Bundesliga, these will start a week later, and we’ve got you covered with all the football odds you need.

A reminder of last season

Many of Europe’s top leagues were decided relatively early on, so we avoided any last day drama in most countries. In Italy, it was Napoli who won the Serie A title by an eventual sixteen points. They opened up an impressive lead early on and never really looked like relinquishing the title, only losing four matches all season. The chasing teams were unable to build much consistency and Lazio, who finished second, ended up losing a total of eight league matches over the course of the season. Rounding up the top four in Italy were the two Milan teams, with defeated Champions League finalists Inter pipping their city rivals AC Milan to third place. The remaining European places went to Atalanta, AS Roma and Juventus. However, since then, Juventus have been banned from European competitions for a year due to financial irregularity so Fiorentina will take their place. Spezia, Cremonese and Sampdoria were relegated from the top tier.

In France, PSG added yet another league title to their long list, managing to do so despite not having the best of seasons. Lens ended up only one point behind PSG but suffered for having too many draws over the course of the season. 

Over in Spain, it was Barcelona’s turn to claim the La Liga title, eventually winning by ten points ahead of arch rivals Real Madrid. The fact they went through the entire league season only conceding twenty goals is an excellent achievement in their last year in the old Camp Nou. Atletico Madrid finished third and Real Sociedad grabbed the last CL spot. 

The most exciting title race last season was in the German Bundesliga as it went right down to the last day. The title was in Dortmund’s hands but they were unable to win their last match of the season, which in turn allowed Bayern to overtake them and claim yet another title. It was certainly a case of a missed opportunity for Dortmund, whose fans could barely believe they threw away such an opportunity. One other notable story from the Bundesliga was the performance of Union Berlin, the unfancied team held on to claim fourth place and a place amongst the elite next season in the Champions League. 

Elsewhere around Europe, there were league title wins for Benfica in Portugal, Feyenoord in Holland and Celtic in Scotland whilst Galatasaray claimed the Super Lig title in Turkey. The CL trophy went to Manchester City, their first ever win in this prestigious competition, whilst serial EL winners Sevilla managed to add another trophy to their cabinet and West Ham claimed the ECL title.

German Bundesliga

This upcoming season will be the 61st Bundesliga season and Bayern Munich have won the last eleven titles in a row. FC Heidenheim and Darmstadt 98 replace Schalke 04 and Hertha Berlin in the top flight. Bayern are yet again strong favourites to win, an incredibly short price of 1.2 to win the title. Dortmund are second favourites again, with RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen third and fourth. The league is always entertaining, high scoring and can spring some surprises but whether or not this year will bring the biggest surprise of all, a winner other than Bayern Munich, remains to be seen.  The defending champions have so far strengthened well with the additions of Kim Min-jae and Raphael Guerreiro whilst they have let go of Marcel Sabitzer and Lucas Hernandez. Dortmund have lost Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid so the challenge for them is to unearth the next young superstar. RB Leipzig have been busy in the market, selling star players Nkunku and Szoboszlai to the PL and bringing in a fair few new players. Whether anyone has enough quality and consistency to challenge for the title is doubtful, so it is likely that the most entertaining battles will be for the top four and the other European places. 

Italian Serie A

The Serie A season in Italy starts on the 19th August, yet some fixtures in the opening weeks might still need to be rearranged due to the fact that in Italy a number of teams share stadiums and there are certain rules about who can play who in European weeks and other restrictions. This will be the 122nd Serie A season to be played, with all the teams apart from Cagliari being based on the mainland. Frosinone, Genoa and the aforementioned Cagliari were promoted to the top tier last season and they will all be looking to ensure survival and stability. Stability is not a word that can be associated with one of the giants of the Italian game, Juventus. The Turin giants’ problems continued into the summer as they were stripped of their ECL place and issued with a further fine. Napoli were last season’s winners but are only second favourites to retain the title this time around. Inter Milan are the most likely winners with Juventus, despite their issues, currently third favourites, followed by AC Milan and the two teams from the capital. At this stage one would say that most Italian teams are weaker than last year as Napoli have lost Kim Min-jae, Inter have lost Andre Onana and Marcelo Brozevic and the league has also lost players such as Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Sandro Tonali and Rasmus Højlund. Despite this, it is likely to be another tightly contested season and there will without a doubt be many moments of drama.

Spanish La Liga

This time around Real Madrid go into the season as favourites, despite Barcelona winning it quite comfortably last season. Atletico Madrid are a distant third with Sevilla currently fourth favourites. However, it is highly unlikely that we will see anyone other than Real Madrid or Barcelona winning the title in Spain. The defending champions will be in strange surroundings as it was decided that their iconic but ageing home, the Camp Nou, needed a rebuild. By contrast, Real Madrid have all but completed their stadium redevelopment so they will soon be ready to go with a full house. La Liga will start a week earlier than some of Europe’s other leagues, starting on the 11th August along with the English top division. Granada, Las Palmas and Alaves won promotion to the top division and they took the places of Valladolid, Espanyol and Elche. This means that there will be two teams not based on the mainland with Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and Mallorca in the Balearics. In terms of transfers, the biggest one so far this summer has been Jude Bellingham’s arrival at Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund. He is one of the biggest young stars in the game and this is the next big step for him in his career. All indications point to it being a positive move for the young Englishman. Ilkay Gundogan joins Barcelona from Manchester City but the majority of moves so far have not been enough to get fans too excited.

French Ligue 1

The French top division has made a change to its structure this season, reducing the number of participating teams to 18. Four were relegated last season, these being Troyes, Angers, Auxerre and Ajaccio whilst only Le Havre and Metz made the step up from the second division. This will be the 86th edition of the Ligue 1 and the challenge to everyone will once again be how to stop PSG. There have been issues behind the scenes at least seasons champions, with Lionel Messi amongst a number of departures, and a long standing contract dispute with their most valuable star, Kylian Mbappe. The Parisians have added Manuel Ugarte, Lucas Hernandez, Marco Asensio and Milan Skriniar amongst others but the loss of Messi, Sergio Ramos, Mauro Icardi as well as many others who might leave the club mean they look like a different proposition next season. None of the other clubs get close to the wealth of the Parisians, so transfers in have been largely uninspiring. PSG go into this season as 1.25 favourites to win yet another title and it is Marseille who are second favourites, currently at a price of 10, followed by Monaco and last season’s runners up Lens and Lille. 

The rest of Europe

In the Eredivisie in Holland, Ajax are favourites to win the title back from Feyenoord, who are second favourites. Given how close the top three are, we can expect an interesting race in this league and it seems to be hard to predict who the eventual winners will be. The league in Portugal will likely be contested between Porto and Benfica yet again, with Sporting looking to get involved if possible. Heading north to Scotland, Celtic go into this upcoming season as favourites once again, although the change of manager might bring some unexpected results. Rangers are not too far behind in the betting market and, in an indication of the dominance of the Old Firm teams, the third favourite are Hearts who are priced at 90.00. Entertainment is always guaranteed in the Turkey Super Lig, with action both on the pitch and between fans and endless controversy. This season Galatasaray are favourites to win, with Fenerbahce second and Besiktas third, although there isn’t a great deal in between the top teams. 

In a few weeks’ time, all of Europe’s big leagues will be well and truly underway and we will be involved in the usual discussions about who is best, the controversies from the previous matches and which manager is likely to get fired next. Once the individual leagues settle down into their rhythm, the European competitions will spring into life with the best of the best from across the continent facing off against each other in the CL, EL and ECL, meaning top level football will be available almost every day of the week!