408/1: Picking the Domestic Cup Winners From 5 Leagues

Bayern Munich are the favourites to win the German DFB Pokal due to the quality of their side as well as their dominance of German football, having not failed to win a league title since 2012.

Bayern were the reigning European champions and treble winners in the 2019/20 season following their 1-0 victory against PSG in the Champions League final in Lisbon and have retained all of that squad bar David Alaba since then, replacing the Austrian with Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig, they also replaced the departing Hansi Flick with Julian Nagelsmann, whilst the likes of rivals Borussia Dortmund sold Jadon Sancho to Manchester United for £73m.

Dortmund won the DFB Pokal last season against Leipzig which will give Nagelsmann the hunger to go one step further with his new team, whilst Bayern have won the competition 20 times which is the German record.

Last season Rangers won the Scottish Premiership for the first time since 2011 under Steven Gerrard, which was the 55th time that they have won the top-flight title in their history. In the process, Gers went unbeaten and are arguably the team to beat in Scotland at present.

Something that Gerrard will be determined to do is win a cup with Rangers, having been knocked out of both of the Scottish Cup and Betfred Cup in the quarter-finals by eventual winners St. Johnstone and St. Mirren. Rangers will be looking to go out and win the Scottish Cup for the first time since the 2008/09 season when they won it for a 33rd time in their club’s history.

United are yet to win a cup under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but there are signs that the Red Devils are getting closer to being a side that are capable of winning trophies and the Carabao Cup could certainly be one that they will focus on.

In previous seasons, the Norwegian has stated that he would like to win the League Cup, as he has recalled that their triumph in 2006 was a major step in the direction the club took in the few seasons that were to follow. Under Solskjaer, United have made it to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup twice in both seasons he has managed them in, but, have come up short against City who have not lost in the competition as a whole since United beat them in 2016 on their way to winning the competition, via a Juan Mata strike at Old Trafford.

With the signings of Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho not being fully bedded into United’s starting line-up, as well Edinson Cavani set to return following an extended summer break there is plenty to be optimistic about with the Red Devils chances of winning a trophy for the first time since 2017.

Juventus are the current holders of the Coppa Italia having won it under Andrea Pirlo last season in what was a poor campaign for Old Lady, having narrowly qualified for the Champions League places and finished 13 points off champions Inter Milan.

Pirlo was eventually sacked, despite their 2-1 victory over Atalanta in the final of the Coppa Italia and replaced with former manager Massimiliano Allegri. The former AC Milan manager has a good record in this competition, winning it four times in a row between 2014 and 2018. What must be noted is that last season, Juve underperformed under Pirlo, as well as the fact that Inter have lost some key players from their side that won the league in Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi following big-money moves to Chelsea and PSG.

With the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala in the Juventus team, as well as the signing of Manuel Locatelli to play in front of fellow international pairing Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, it is hard to look past Juventus at present.

Barcelona are the current holder of the Copa del Rey, having won it for a record 31st time last season under the management of Ronald Koeman, having hammered Athletic Bilbao 4-0 in the final at La Cartuja thanks to goals from Antoine Griezmann, Frenkie De Jong and Lionel Messi (2).

What will raise question marks is the departure of Messi from the Nou Camp as to whether Barca can win titles and cups without the Argentinian, but what must be noted are the signings of the likes of Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay. Aguero has 378 career goals to his name at Independiente, Atletico Madrid and City, whilst Depay managed 76 goals and 55 assists in his time at Lyon and proved that he has what it takes to perform at the highest level.

Koeman also found his preferred formation of a 3-5-2 towards the second half of last season which was very effective, as the Catalonian club managed to mount a league title challenge from an unlikely position following a poor start to the season. There is a good chance that Barca could win the Copa del Rey, especially with the likes of Real losing Varane and Sergio Ramos in the same summer.