UCL talking points: Durán and Di Maria shine, Man City still favorites

The 2024-25 UEFA Champions League is underway in its new format, and we have already seen several players shine. Ángel Di María, at 36, continues to lead Benfica with some standout performances, while Aston Villa‘s Jhon Durán is becoming the most feared super-sub in the competition.

There have also been surprises from young talent, such as Juventus‘ Francisco Conceição, whose stunning goal against RB Leipzig turned heads, and Real Madrid‘s Endrick, who made history as the club’s youngest Champions League starter.

ESPN writers Julien Laurens, Alex Kirkland, and Rob Dawson take a look back at what was an action-packed matchday two.

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Which player has exceeded expectations?

Laurens: Benfica have won their first two games of this Champions League season — away at Feyenoord and on Wednesday night against Atletico Madrid — and their star man has been Di Maria. At 36, for his last season in Europe, the Argentina legend is still so influential, more than I expected. His career has been wonderful and if, like me, you thought he was in pre-retirement this year, we were wrong. He is still a star who works hard and makes things happen.

Dawson: What a start to the season Durán is having. He’s very much second choice behind Ollie Watkins but that hasn’t stopped him from scoring six goals. He only got 20 minutes against Bayern Munich at Villa Park on Wednesday but that was more than enough time to score a memorable winner. Durán, who looked set to leave Villa in the summer, has only had 297 minutes of football in all competitions so far this season which means he’s averaging a goal every 49.5 minutes. He’s the super-sub every Champions League team will be worried about.

Kirkland: I was blown away by Conceição’s goal for Juventus, to give their 10 men a 3-2 win at RB Leipzig. I’d seen a bit of him at FC Porto, and with Portugal at the Euros, but didn’t think the winger was capable of this kind of quality. A word about Endrick too, who became Real Madrid’s youngest Champions League starter against Lille, at 18 years and 73 days old. He couldn’t score to follow his goal off the bench against VfB Stuttgart, but he went close in the first half after a trademark burst forwards. He’s got so much potential.

Are you enjoying the format in terms of teams playing eight new teams vs. three teams twice in previous editions?

Dawson: Most fans will agree that having games like Manchester City vs. Internazionale and Arsenal vs. Paris Saint-Germain so early in the tournament is exciting, but it feels like there are also a lot of lower-quality matches. Any tournament is at its best when there’s jeopardy and it doesn’t feel like there’s enough. The new expanded format means more games, but by the end of the league phase we’re only going to lose 12 of the 36 teams. We’re only two games in and it’s already beginning to feel like a bit of a grind.

Kirkland: I quite like the feeling of having to pay attention to all the games, and all the teams, because everything’s connected: you end up at least catching the highlights of games you might have ignored previously, if they were in a group that you weren’t particularly interested in. But I still feel like it’s hard to know exactly how valuable a win is, or how disastrous a defeat; we aren’t quite sure what the stakes are. That will change as we go along, but right now, even some big results don’t feel like they have the weight they should have.

Laurens: I am loving it! I always want more football matches, and I like the idea that in every matchday we have big clashes; Man City-Inter, Arsenal-PSG, AC Milan–Liverpool, etc. After 30 years of the old groups of four, the Champions League needed a change so let’s give it a chance. The more we advance in this league phase, the more it will get interesting and tense. Teams will give everything to finish in the top eight and avoid the playoffs round. I also like the fact that you play eight different opponents. It’s good tactically, it’s good in terms of experience, and it’s good for fans. So what’s not to like?

The UCL never fails to surprise us. Which of the “surprise” teams have impressed you and are best placed to qualify automatically for knockouts?

Laurens: It won’t last. But it’s already one of the fairytales of this Champions League campaign. French minnows Brest, from Britanny, who had never played in Europe before, are second in the table of the best club competition in the world. Two wins in two games (albeit against two Austrian sides), with six goals scored is an amazing surprise from Eric Roy’s side. They were a revelation in Ligue 1 last season with their third-place finish, and now they are a sensation in the Champions League. They have Bayer Leverkusen next at home and they will believe that anything is possible.

Kirkland: Benfica’s 4-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid was an eyeopener. Atletico were awful, but Benfica were clinical and ruthless in exploiting their weaknesses. They’re not a team packed with familiar names — at least to a casual observer of Portuguese football — aside from Argentinian veterans Di Maria and Nicolás Otamendi. They’ve got a winnable game next up, against Feyenoord; it gets trickier later on, with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Juventus further down the road.

Let’s give some early predictions: which team is your favorite to go all the way and lift the title this season?

Dawson: It’s difficult to look beyond Manchester City, even without Rodri. They drew with Inter Milan at home in their first game, but they’ll still breeze through the league phase. Anything other than a top eight finish will be a big surprise and once they’re in the knockouts they will be the team everyone wants to avoid. Pep Guardiola has made them masters of this competition and they will be very hard to beat. Rodri being out for the season is a huge blow and Real Madrid, with all their attacking talent, pose a big threat but City are favourites for a reason.

Kirkland: Can I be boring and say Real Madrid? Yes, they lost at Lille, and yes, they’re not playing at all well so far this season, but there’s time to sort that out. They still have so much quality, and they’ll still deliver when it matters – they always do.

Laurens: Do you want me to be original or not? The boring answer (but the only answer) is that Real Madrid and Manchester City are better than anyone else and they are the two favourites (again). However, I like to be different so I will say Arsenal will win it. They have learned a lot from last season’s loss in the quarterfinal against Bayern Munich (who I also fancy by the way), they play with so much confidence, have the best centre-back in Europe in William Saliba, and they can definitely go all the way if they get a bit of luck in the draw.