BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand has made Bayern Munich favourites to retain the Champions League trophy this season.

Asked to pick who he thinks will win the competition, Ferdinand said that while Bayern are the standout team, he ranks Liverpool a close second:

“I put Bayern Munich favourites, but I would have Liverpool close second favourites. It is great to see big teams are in there, the English boys are in there bar Manchester United disappointingly…”

Ferdinand believes all of England’s teams have a chance of making it to the latter stages of the tournament, with Chelsea the hardest to predict considering they are an unknown quantity in Europe under manager Frank Lampard:

“I think the English teams will go deep in the tournament, I think they have got some real quality, Bayern and possibly PSG are the only threats…”

“They [Chelsea] are a team that are starting to gel together, you can see Frank has done good business up to now in the transfer market. Get through the Christmas period and New Year and see how the squad is shaping up injury-wise and form-wise. When the Champions League restarts again we will have to readdress our expectations for certain teams because form and injuries play a big part.”

The draw for the Champions League group stages take place on Monday, with Liverpool, City and Chelsea all being seeded having finished top of their groups. Manchester United, meanwhile, been relegated to the Europa League following their defeat to RB Leipzig on Tuesday.

Liverpool will be keen to do better than last year when they were knocked out at the last 16 stage by Atletico Madrid. There could well be a repeat with the Spanish club being one of the Reds’ seven possible opponents. You can find out more about which teams Liverpool can face here.