How $INTER, $CITY and Villa ($AVL) Could Ignite on UCL Opening Night

The sparkling lights of the Champions League are set to return on Tuesday (Sept. 8) night, with three Fan Token® teams in Inter Milan, Manchester City and Aston Villa set to begin their campaigns away from home.

All three tokens have been relatively quiet on the trading front as the domestic football leagues get under way across Europe.

That could change as Aston Villa ($AVL) visit Belgian champions Club Brugge in the early kickoff, before Inter ($INTER) face Real Madrid, and Manchester City ($CITY) travel to face Portuguese champions Porto.

Let’s take a look at how $CITY, $INTER and $AVL are shaping up ahead of their Champions League openers.

Can Champions League Football Awaken $AVL?

Aston Villa begin the action versus Club Brugge at 5:45pm UK time (UTC+1), looking for their first victory of the season.

Unai Emery’s side earned their first Premier League point with Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Hull City. Their domestic form has been underwhelming, mirroring their start to last season’s campaign when they failed to win in their first six games.

Yet by January, Villa had climbed to third in the league, just six points behind league-leaders Arsenal. In Europe, Villa went on to win 13 out of their 15 Europa League matches, eventually beating Freiburg 3-0 in the final to win their first European trophy in 44 years.

All of the positives that surrounded Villa last season, including their shrewd spending and profitable balance sheet, still stand for a team that has consistently out-performed higher-spending teams for the past several seasons.

The past quarter has been something of a rollercoaster for the Aston Villa Fan Token® ($AVL). Seen below, the token gained 35% between June and August, as the token price climbed from $0.062 to $0.084.

That was followed by a retraction to the tune of 26% as the token price returned to $0.062 exactly, as of time of writing on Sept. 8.

A first victory of the season, achieved on European football’s opening night, could provide the kind of positive event that kickstarted last season’s campaign, and has so far been missing for both Villa and $AVL.

Could Inter Shock Real Madrid at the Bernabéu?

Italian champions Inter find themselves in the most prestigious fixture of the night when they visit José Mourinho’s new-look Real Madrid side.

Cristian Chivu’s side arrive with a perfect Serie A record after victories over Monza, Cagliari and Napoli. The latest was the most dramatic, as Inter recovered from 2-0 down to beat Napoli 3-2 thanks to a Lautaro Martínez injury-time winner.

Mourinho’s 2010 Champions League victory with Inter Milan adds a layer of historical significance to tonight’s game. The manager is still adored by Inter fans, but tonight finds himself trying to extend Madrid’s four-match winning streak against the Serie A title holders.

Seen in the quarterly chart below, the valuation of the Inter Milan Fan Token® ($INTER) has actually remained within the $0.20 to $0.21 range for the past three months (besides some brief outlier spikes).

This extremely quiet starting point for the $INTER token leaves considerable room for activity to accelerate if Inter threaten an upset at the Bernabéu. Even without a victory, the uncertainty created by an early goal or a close second half could be enough to bring traders into the market.

Is $CITY Already Heating Up?

Like Inter Milan, Manchester City go into tonight’s match against Porto having won their first three league games.

Those matches were against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Coventry, however, so it could be argued that Porto will provide Enzo Maresca’s side with their toughest test of the season so far.

The Portuguese champions have lost only one of their last 14 European home matches, while City have suffered six defeats across their previous nine Champions League away games. City are unbeaten in four previous meetings with Porto, however.

The Manchester City Fan Token® ($CITY) currently attracts the bulk of trade volume among the three tokens mentioned, with around $1.5M having changed hands in the past 24 hours.

How events play out at the Estádio do Dragão tonight could determine whether that volume develops into a price movement.

What Should Fan Token® Traders Watch?

An opening goal, unexpected team selections and the final result could all affect trading activity, but rising volume should not automatically be interpreted as bullish demand.

As the recent Julián Alvarez saga demonstrated, uncertainty itself can sometimes generate more activity than the eventual outcome.

$AVL enters the night searching for a spark, $INTER faces a test against one the world’s most closely-watched clubs, and $CITY is already recording seven-figure trade volume.

Whether those conditions translate into higher valuations remains uncertain, but a Champions League opening night provides all three tokens with a major, concentrated market event.

Greg Thomson: Fan Token® Market Reporter