I think the adjustment to the new format will make for a few deep dark horse runs from underdog teams.
Extra games, no away goals and only playing a team once in the group/table portion are fun additions that should make for exciting games. I hope to be wrong but the added games seem to only lead to more injuries as coaches never seem to rotate even with large benches, hopefully the smaller teams don't get punished by injuries or playing inexperienced players against the bigger clubs.
Depends on when Madrid finds form. But I expect three of the four semi finalists to be English.