Return to Europe

With a new coach, a squad reformed with another intake of marquee signings and a star player buoyed by a reported record-breaking contract renewal, Real Madrid on Tuesday begins afresh its yearly quest for the elusive décima — that 10th Champions League title that all the millions shelled out on the finest soccer talent money can buy over the past decade has so far failed to bring to the Bernabéu.

But more than new boss Carlo Ancelotti — a double Champions League winner with Milan — 100-million-euro Welshman Gareth Bale, or Cristiano Ronaldo's contract extension, it's the choice to put club captain and World Cup winner Iker Casillas between the sticks that is perhaps raising the most eyebrows.

Ancelotti says he wants Casillas to play in the Champions League and Diego López — who became first-choice keeper under José Mourinho and remains so under the Italian this season — to play in La Liga. Quite how this will help in consolidating Real's back line is one of the big questions, as is whether his reduced role might cause Casillas to jump ship from the club where he is worshipped as a hero in the winter transfer window.

Real's opponent is Galatasaray (8.45pm, TVE1), which it knocked out 5-3 on aggregate in the quarterfinals of last year's competition. As they did then, the main threats in Istanbul will come from former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and Burak Yilmaz in attack. But the Turkish side has had a lackluster start to the new season with just three ties in their first three matches and Real will be anxious to get off to a winning start in a group that also contains Serie A champion Juventus. The Italian team plays FC Copenhagen on Tuesday.

Sociedad played incredible soccer to get past Lyon but have not shown quite such consistent style in La Liga

Even more up against it, however, is Real Sociedad. The San Sebastián side, playing in the Champions League for the first time in 10 years, hosts Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk (8.45pm on C+Liga de Campeones, as are all the other games) and its army of Brazilian talent at the Anoeta on Tuesday night, which promises to be but a warm-up for forthcoming Group A showdowns with mighty Manchester United and the Bundesliga's Bayer Leverkusen. The Basques played some incredible soccer to get past seasoned Champions Leaguers Lyon in the summer playoff to make it this far, but have not shown quite such consistent style in La Liga so far this year and will do well to make it out of such a challenging group.

On Wednesday night Barcelona will be trying to put memories of last season's 7-0 semifinal aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich out of its mind when it begins its 2013-14 campaign against Ajax in Camp Nou. Bolstered by Brazilian star Neymar, the Catalans have started the season confidently under new coach Tata Martínez with four wins out of four in La Liga, though whether they will be able to stem the rise of the Germans this time round remains to be seen. It's hard to see Frank de Boer's Dutch side causing them too many problems in a group that also includes some familiar foes: Scottish club Celtic, which beat Barça in Glasgow in the group phase last season, and Milan, which it knocked out in the last 16 last year, having also played each other in both the group phase and the quarterfinals two years ago.

After four years away picking up Europa League and European Super Cup titles, Atlético Madrid returns to the Champions League for the first time since 2009-2010 when it hosts Zenit St Petersburg at the Vicente Calderón on Wednesday. Its highly conquerable-looking Group G also features Austria Wien and Porto.