Let's be honest: Previewing a European soccer season right before it starts is damn near impossible. We've certainly tried -- there are plenty of pieces for you to read on how the season is shaping up in the major leagues, with both the Premier League and LaLiga kicking off mere hours from now -- and there will be more in the coming days. But we know that there are still three more weeks until the transfer window closes, we know some clubs are going to make some huge moves and we know other clubs are going to make some spectacularly foolish moves when desperation grows.
Previewing a season when we don't even know what the rosters will look can be a fraught experience. So for this piece, let's try a little something different; instead of previewing a season, let's preview a month.
With European soccer getting going again, let's talk about the most interesting August matches in each major league -- and the most interesting plot lines to track while we watch them -- as we wait for rosters to come together.
August's five most interesting Premier League matches
The best (and richest) league in Europe kicks off on Friday, and with plenty of unfinished transfer business to sort out. But while we wait to see how Tottenham Hotspur goes about crafting a Harry Kane-free attack (now that he actually seems to be leaving), if and how Manchester City replaces Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gündogan, who else Chelsea reels in with its epic transfer addiction, there's plenty to learn.
Aug. 11: Manchester City at Burnley. What a delightful opening match, pitting Pep Guardiola's City against a team managed by Guardiola's former City captain, Vincent Kompany. Kompany's Burnley pulled off a 180-degree identity shift last year and rolled to promotion; we'll see how many blows they can land against a City team in transition.
Manchester City begins 2023-24 a hair thinner in midfield and attack, but deeper than ever at the back, where they just signed highly touted Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig and appear to be re-signing right-back Kyle Walker. We'll see what this means for his early-season lineup selections, especially considering he basically started four center-backs in June's Champions League final (Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké and Manuel Akanji, plus John Stones in a defensive midfield role). He's got options, and we know he'll tinker.
Aug. 12: Aston Villa at Newcastle United. One team that just qualified for its first Champions League stint in two decades hosting a team with Champions League ambitions of its own. Villa is obviously a long shot for the top four, but they established solid altitude after hiring Unai Emery last year, and they've added fun pieces in Bayer Leverkusen's Moussa Diaby and Villarreal's Pau Torres. The vibes are strong at Villa Park.
Up in St. James Park, Newcastle has been busy adding depth for said Champions League campaign. They've replaced Saudi-bound Allan Saint-Maximin with Leicester City's Harvey Barnes and added Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali and young Southampton right-back Tino Livramento. Eddie Howe's got a growing squad to work with, and between the European nights and potential rebounds from both Chelsea and Liverpool (and Spurs?), he and Newcastle will need to start strong to help their quest for another top-four finish.
Aug. 13: Liverpool at Chelsea. A battle of wounded heavyweights on the season's very first weekend. Nice.
Liverpool is in the middle of refreshing a stale midfield -- they've added Dominik Szoboszlai (RB Leipzig) and Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton) but probably need at least one more player after losing both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Pro League -- while Chelsea is attempting an energy revitalization of its own under Mauricio Pochettino.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says that the quality of football will suffer with the new rules on added time being introduced in the Premier League.
Chelsea thinned out a bloated squad this summer, but with three August signings already, they might be in the process of a re-bloat. Regardless, Pochettino should connect pretty well with a young and hungry squad, and it wouldn't surprise me if they began the season strong, even if sparkly new forward Christopher Nkunku is out for a bit.
Aug. 19: Manchester United at Tottenham Hotspur. It's safe to say that whatever Spurs might end up becoming this season, they won't resemble that on Aug. 19. New manager Ange Postecoglu is attempting a pretty significant system change, and after working with the team in the preseason and in friendlies, Harry Kane appears to be officially leaving, as long rumored, for Bayern. There's still obvious talent in attack here -- new addition James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, potentially healthy versions of Heung-min Son and Richarlison -- but one has to figure there will be an adjustment period.
The adjustment period in Manchester, however, is over, and this is officially Erik Ten Hag's team. He engineered a top-four finish despite not having what he needed, in terms of either style or talent (or both), at either goalkeeper or center-forward. He's now got André Onana in goal, Rasmus Hojlund (though already injured) up front, Mason Mount as an extra creative option, and all the guys who began to thrive under Ten Hag last year: Marcus Rashford, Casemiro, and others. This team should start quickly.
Aug. 27: Liverpool at Newcastle United. Per Caesars, six clubs begin the season with odds of at least +150 (equivalent to a 40% chance) to finish in the top four. Liverpool (-200) is one of them and will have played two others by the end of August.
As such, an early pecking order will establish itself.
August's five most interesting LaLiga matches
Alex Kirkland, Gab Marcotti and Don Hutchison preview the LaLiga season ahead of its start this weekend.
Between Thibaut Courtois' recent ACL tear and the looming drama surrounding PSG's Kylian Mbappé, it's safe to say that we haven't yet established proper expectations for Real Madrid this season. Still, LaLiga looks pretty familiar on the eve of the campaign, with Real Madrid and Barcelona all but assured top-three finishes, Atletico Madrid likely as well and a host of teams embarking on a nine-month marathon for fourth place.
Aug. 11: Valencia at Sevilla. Few teams saw their outlook shift more dramatically last spring than Sevilla, which was languishing in 14th place (and barely holding on in the Europa League) when it hired veteran manager Jose Luis Mendilibar on March 21. But they won six of their first eight league matches with Mendilibar in charge, and they blew through Manchester United, Juventus and Roma to win their seventh Europa League crown in 18 years. Their most dire season in years ended up with Champions League qualification, and now they begin 2023-24 with top-four expectations again.
Valencia didn't end up with the same happy ending, but they did pull 15 points from their final nine matches to at least avoid relegation. This proud club remains in transition mode and needed help from loanees like Atletico's Samuel Lino (plus Milan-bound Yunus Musah) to survive the drop. They still have stalwarts like full-back and captain José Gayà and midfielder André Almeida, but with poor performances in early matches like this, things might fall apart again.
Aug. 12: Real Madrid at Athletic Club. Caesars gives Athletic Club the sixth-best odds of finishing in the top four (+300, equivalent to 25%), a pretty big endorsement of the continuity they've built. Athletic hit the skids late in 2022-23 but brings back not only the Williams brothers (29-year old Inaki and 21-year old Nico, who combined for 23 goals and assists) but also another bright young attacker in Oihan Sancet (10 goals, two assists).
Pair that with the typical stubborn defense, and Bilbao becomes an awfully tricky place for Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham era to begin. Courtois is out hurt, and barring an Mbappe-related miracle transfer, the attack is looking at a transition year, with Karim Benzema leaving and getting temporarily replaced with Espanyol's Joselu.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Blancos plodded through the early stages of the season before establishing whatever rhythm they end with.
Aug. 20: Atletico Madrid at Real Betis. For three straight seasons, Real Betis has flirted with a top-four finish, only to fall just short. I'm not sure veteran additions like Héctor Bellerín, Marc Bartra and Isco are the answers for closing that gap, but they should make the Verdiblancos a tough out to start the season.
That could be important because they've got maybe the biggest August match-up of anyone here. Atletico was the best team in LaLiga from mid-January on, and Antoine Griezmann was its best player. They added Chelsea's César Azpilicueta and Leicester's Caglar Söyüncü on free transfers, and João Félix is back in uniform after an unsuccessful loan spell with Chelsea. Will they start this season as red-hot as they finished the last?
Alex Kirkland explains how Thibaut Courtois's knee injury forces Real Madrid to enter the transfer market for a goalkeeper.
Aug. 20: Cadiz at Barcelona. The defending league champions will likely be late movers in this transfer window, thanks to an influx of cash from PSG's impending acquisition of Ousmane Dembélé. We'll see what they do with that money, but thus far they've added just Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City) and Iñigo Martínez (Athletic Club), and they get to ease into LaLiga play with early matches against Getafe and Cadiz.
Honestly, the most interesting thing about this match might be the location: Barca will play its home games at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium (Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys) this year while the Camp Nou undergoes a major renovation.
Aug. 27: Barcelona at Villarreal. The champs' first real test will come near the end of the month, when they visit Villarreal. Led by former Barca manager Quique Setien, Villarreal finished 2022-23 in torrid form, pulling 33 points from their last 16 matches. They've lost big-money attackers Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea) and Samuel Chukwueze (Milan), however. We'll see how much that throws off their rhythm.
August's five most interesting Bundesliga matches
Bayern Munich seemed to short-circuit a bit after its tried and true squad-building tactic - steal everyone else's stars within the Bundesliga - failed to get them Erling Haaland last summer. They lost Robert Lewandowski, didn't directly replace him, struggled in the winter and then panic-fired Julian Nagelsmann in favor of Thomas Tuchel. The breakdowns continued, and they needed epic help from Mainz on the final day of the season to keep their 11-year title streak intact.
The main storyline of the season is going to be whether big spending can steer Bayern out of this skid and whether an angry, scarred version of Borussia Dortmund can make another run. That's not the only storyline, however.
Aug. 18: Bayern Munich at Werder Bremen. A former Premier League standout will make his long-awaited debut on the opening Friday of the season. How perfect. I am talking, of course ... about Naby Keita. The 28-year old joins Werder Bremen after five trophy-laden seasons at Liverpool.
Okay, fine, I'm talking about Harry Kane. Bayern attempted a high-risk, high-stakes gambit this offseason, placing all their "we need a new star forward" chips on Kane and hoping they could steer through a negotiation with Spurs' Daniel Levy. It appears they've pulled it off. We don't know how many minutes he'll play in this one, but he'll be Storyline No. 1, No. 2, et cetera.
Gab Marcotti and Don Hutchison react to Tottenham and Bayern agreeing a €100m+ deal for Harry Kane.
Aug. 19: RB Leipzig at Bayer Leverkusen. Last year, I enthusiastically talked myself into Bayer Leverkusen being an underdog Bundesliga contender only for them to fire manager Gerardo Seone by early October after an appalling start. They had to rally under Xabi Alonso just to finish sixth, but ... they rallied! And they turned Aston Villa's €55 million transfer fee for Moussa Diaby into midfielders Granit Xhaka (Arsenal) and Jonas Hofmann (Borussia Monchengladbach) and forward Victor Boniface (Union Saint-Gilloise).
Am I talking myself into Leverkusen all over again? You bet! Which is why their very first match of the league campaign might help to tell me how foolish that is.
RB Leipzig will almost certainly need a breaking-in period after losing Nkunku, Szoboszlai and Gvardiol to big-money transfers in short succession. They have loaded up on attacking successors and could be as prolific as ever soon, but that's just so much change. We'll see if they can avoid a slow start.
Aug. 20: Mainz at Union Berlin. Last year's darling hosting last year's spoiler. Mainz had just about the most dramatic and memorable ninth-place finish ever in 2022-23, beating Bayern Munich to help tip the title race toward Borussia Dortmund, only to take a point in Dortmund on the final matchday and hand Bayern its 11th straight title. Bo Svensson is an intriguing manager, and Mainz is at least an underdog for a European spot if they can resume their February-March form.
Union Berlin, meanwhile, prepared for its first Champions League campaign by adding as much speed and energy as possible to an already high-energy roster. Midfielder Lucas Tousat (Hertha Berlin) is a nice shop-wrecker, and loanees David Datro Fofana (Chelsea) and Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United) are speedy options in attack. Can Urs Fischer's squad start as well as it did last year when it has to worry about Champions League play as well?
Aug. 26: Borussia Dortmund at Bochum. Of the many infuriating results that beset BVB's ill-fated title push, a controversial late-April draw with local derby rival Bochum had to rank pretty highly. Despite losing Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid, BVB has a lot to offer this season: they were easily the best team in Germany over the second half of the season (once Sébastien Haller was healthy and available), and last year's disappointment should certainly create some useful callouses.
A return trip to Bochum might tell us a bit about how well they'll avoid the missteps that cost them so dearly a few months ago.
Aug. 26: Bayer Leverkusen at Borussia Monchengladbach. Leverkusen gets another intriguing early matchup here with a trip to face a blank slate rival led by Seoane. Few teams have changed more significantly than Gladbach. Out are Marcus Thuram, Jonas Hofmann, Remy Bensebaini and Lars Stindl; in are a number of intriguing youngsters and veteran winger Franck Honorat. It seems the upside might still be high, but this is a younger and far less proven Foals squad. They're a mystery heading into the season.
August's five most interesting Serie A matches
If you think about it, there's really no reason to provide any particularly good matchups early in a given season: people are just going to be excited for the season to start regardless, so load up with mediocre matchups, then swoop in with the big stuff later on.
That seems to be Serie A's strategy, anyway. Of last year's top-eight finishers, none play each other in August; the most high-profile August matchup seems to come when fourth-place AC Milan plays ninth-place Bologna on Aug. 21. Granted, we'll still get opportunities to find out which of last year's best teams starts the strongest -- and AC Milan, Inter, Juventus and Lazio have all made enough moves to look pretty different this season -- but the August stakes aren't particularly high in Italy.
Aug. 19: Monza at Inter Milan. After last year's run to the Champions League final, Inter has cycled out one batch of veterans (Andre Onana, Marcelo Brozovic, Milan Skriniar, Edin Dzeko) for a new one (Marcus Thuram, Yann Sommer, Juan Cuadrado). What does Simone Inzaghi do with these new pieces?
Aug. 20: Lazio at Lecce. They were overshadowed by Napoli's thrilling Scudetto run and an all-Milan Champions League semifinal, but Lazio quietly recorded a second-place finish last season, got €40 million from Al-Hilal for midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, replaced him with Eintracht Frankfurt's Daichi Kamada and loaded up on intriguing young attackers like Midtjylland's Gustav Isaksen and former MLS leading scorer Taty Castellanos.
In short, they might be the most interesting team in Italy to start the season. At least, the most interesting one not named AC Milan.
Aug. 20: Juventus at Udinese. A point deduction cost Juventus a spot in Europe, and they are almost certain to make some more moves between now and the end of the transfer window. But they've added Tim Weah, and they still have the bones of a top-four squad. How will Juve start a Europe-free season? In a funk or on a roll?
Aug. 21: AC Milan at Bologna. Behold, the United States of Milan. The 2022 league champions added Americans Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah, plus Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze and midfielders Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders. This squad needed a refresh and got it. We'll see if that translates to a fast start.
Aug. 27: Sassuolo at Napoli. They lost defender Min-jae Kim to Bayern but have managed to scare off any suitors for Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and kept most of last year's title-winning core intact. Can new manager Rudi Garcia, a solid if unspectacular hire following the departure of Luciano Spalletti, fend off a hangover and get Napoli's title defense off to a good start?
What on earth does PSG look like to begin the year?
I wanted to include five more matches from outside of Europe's four biggest leagues, but most of them take cues from Serie A and go to great lengths to avoid anything particularly intriguing. But with the way the past few months have gone at PSG, every match is interesting.
A recap:
- Lionel Messi is gone ...
- ... as is Sergio Ramos.
- Neymar would be, too, if PSG could find someone to take his onerous contract.
- Kylian Mbappe is evidently in purgatory now that PSG has figured out that, after letting his contract run all the way down and go to the highest bidder last summer, Mbappe planned on basically doing the exact same thing next summer. (I know: I'm not sure I get it either.)
The club has made some astute additions of both veterans (defenders Lucas Hernández and Milan Skriniar) and exciting youngsters (Manuel Ugarte, Hugo Ekitike, Kang-in Lee), and Ousmane Dembele is on the way soon. Luis Enrique has plenty to work with. But until this strange and silly Mbappe saga is over, it's going to weigh over everything else, especially with a matchup against last year's Ligue 1 runner-up, Lens, looming on Aug. 27.
The final push for Champions League qualification
The season begins in earnest on the final day of the month, and not only because that's when the transfer window closes. On Aug. 31, we'll also get the Champions League draw, followed by the Europa League and Europa Conference League draws the next day.
At this point, we only know 26 of the 32 teams that will play in the Champions League 2023-24 group stage. Six more spots remain up for grabs among 22 teams from Europe's lower leagues, and it's never too late to adopt and stake your entire emotional health on one of these 22 teams reaching the big stage.
Here are, to me, the five most interesting teams remaining in the qualification field:
5. The winner of Sparta Prague vs. Copenhagen. This is maybe the most high-profile matchup of the second-to-last qualification round. Both the Czech and Danish champions are sturdy enough (and experienced enough in Europe) to hold their own in the Champions League.
Veteran-heavy Copenhagen was easily the stronger of the two teams, against a younger Sparta squad, in the home leg of the tie, but poor finishing and a couple of brilliant saves from Sparta's Peter Vindahl rendered the match a nil-nil draw. The winner will be favored against either Poland's Rakow Czestochowa or Cyprus' Aris Limassol in the final qualification round.
4. Sporting Braga. It's always interesting when Portugal's soccer power structure is disrupted in any way. For any club to finish in the top three of the Primeira Liga -- ahead of at least one of Benfica, Porto and Sporting CP -- it has to do so many things right. Since 2012-13, only two teams outside of that triumvirate have managed to crack the top three: Braga in 2019-20 and Braga in 2022-23.
Now, the de facto No. 4 club in the country was No. 3 last season thanks to an influx of scoring. New additions Simon Banza, Bruma and Álvaro Djaló combined for 17 goals and 12 assists alongside stalwarts like Ricardo Horta (14 goals and eight assists), and Sporting went from scoring 52 goals in league play to scoring 75.
Their first qualification match was an easy 3-0 win over Serbia's TSC, and if they close out a win in that tie next week, they'll have to beat either Panathinaikos or Marseille (Panathinaikos is up 1-0 after the first leg) to secure their first spot in the Champions League group stage since 2013.
3. PSV Eindhoven. It feels like cheating mentioning such a storied club here -- the qualification phase is for underdog runs and new names! -- but I always make an exception for PSV, the most relentless attacking team in a relentless attacking league.
PSV scored 89 goals in 34 league matches last year, thanks in part to a lovely campaign from PSG loanee Xavi Simons (19 goals, eight assists). He's now with RB Leipzig, but the club replaced him with Club Brugge's Noa Lang and American Ricardo Pepi, who scored 12 goals with an otherwise dreadful FC Groningen last year.
PSV probably should have also qualified for last year's Champions League, but slipped up in the final round against Rangers. They might have a shot at revenge. PSV beat Sturm Graz 4-1 on Tuesday and should advance to the final qualification round, where they'll face either Rangers or Switzerland's Servette. Rangers won the first leg of that tie 2-1.
2. Royal Antwerp. In one of the wildest final-matchday scenarios you'll ever see, Antwerp snagged its first Belgian title since 1957 by drawing with Genk thanks to a Toby Alderweireld goal in the 94th minute. They were the third of three teams that topped the live table in about a six-minute span, and they won the league by a single point. That earned them a bye into the final round of qualification, where they'll play either Dinamo Zagreb or AEK Athens.
Antwerp has found success by properly toeing the line between leaning on young players who will eventually land with bigger clubs -- 23-year-old midfielder Jurgen Ekkelenkamp and 18-year old defensive midfielder Arthur Vermeeren seem destined for a larger stage soon -- plus sturdy veterans like forward Vincent Janssen (16 goals and four assists last season) and, of course, former Tottenham and Atletico Madrid defender Alderweireld. They're led by a familiar face, too: Mark Van Bommel, the former Bayern and Dutch national team star who might end up being a star manager, too.
1. KI Klaksvik. Ah, yes. This is the good stuff. A big fish in the smallest of ponds, KI is the heavyweight of the Faroe Islands, but they've never made it particularly close to the Champions League group stage. But a shocking 3-0 blowout of Hungary's Ferencvaros in Budapest got them into the second qualification round, where they took down Sweden's BK Hacken in penalties. They opened the third round with a 2-1 win over Norway's Molde thanks to two goals from Faroese winger Arni Frederiksberg, and if they can somehow see out the win, they would likely face Turkey's Galatasaray for a spot in the big show.
I am far too emotionally invested in this team advancing. Look at their home stadium, for goodness' sake!!
Please make this happen, soccer gods.