The four English representatives in this season’s Champions League will be watching on eagerly when the group stage draw takes place in Geneva at 4pm (BST) on Thursday.
After having two finalists in 2018-19 in Liverpool and Tottenham, Premier League clubs faltered in last season’s competition with Manchester City going the furthest despite losing to Lyon in the quarter-finals.
Although it was a poor campaign for English clubs, last season’s top four – Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea – are all in the top two pots.
Liverpool are in Pot One courtesy of winning the Premier League while Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are all in Pot Two.
Champions League group stage pots
Pot One: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Zenit Saint Petersburg
Pot Two: Atletico Madrid, Ajax, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk
Pot Three: Atalanta, Dynamo Kiev, Inter Milan, Lazio, Olympiakos, RB Leipzig
Pot Four: Borussia Monchengladbach, Istanbul Basaksehir, Ferencvaros, Rennes, Slavia Prague/Midtjylland
*Teams left to be drawn: Club Brugge, Krasnodar/PAOK, Lokomotiv Moscow, Marseille, Red Bull Salzburg/Maccabi Tel Aviv
Here are the best and worst case scenarios for the four Premier League clubs ahead of the draw:
Liverpool
Best case: Shakhtar Donetsk, Olympiakos, Ferencvaros
Liverpool, theoretically at least, should benefit from being in Pot One given they will avoid last season’s winners Bayern Munich, as well as fellow heavyweights Juventus, PSG and Real Madrid.
There are still plenty of good teams in the competition, of course, but Shakhtar Donetsk are arguably the weakest team in Pot Two, largely due to the fact that the error-prone 36-year-old Andriy Pyatov is still somehow in goal.
Avoiding the three Serie A sides and 2019-20 semi-finalists RB Leipzig would be preferable in Pot Three, while Ferencvaros – in the group stage for the first time since 1995 – appear the weakest team in Pot Four.
Worst case: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Borussia Monchengladbach
Barcelona might have exited last season’s Champions League in humiliating fashion, but they still have the world’s best player Lionel Messi – despite his best attempts to leave this summer.
Inter fell at the final hurdle in the Europa League but have retained the services of Antonio Conte as manager and strengthened impressively in the close season with Achraf Hakimi the headline arrival from Real Madrid.
Borussia Monchengladbach haven’t spent much but, importantly, they have retained the services of the highly-rated duo Denis Zakaria and Marcus Thuram, while head coach Marco Rose is also well regarded.
Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd
Best case: Zenit St Petersburg, Dynamo Kiev, Ferencvaros
Strangely given their limited impact on the continental stage, Russian Premier League winners still go straight into Pot One and, despite signing Dejan Lovren, Zenit St Petersburg still seem the weakest team in the top eight.
Since the turn of the century, Dynamo Kiev have slipped behind Shakhtar Donetsk as Ukrainian football’s leading club and their lack of spending this summer suggests they could struggle to get out of the group stage.
As alluded to above, Hungarian champions Ferencvaros may find things difficult in their first appearance in European football’s top competition in a quarter of a century.
Worst case: Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Rennes
Despite their shock 4-1 defeat to Hoffenheim this weekend, Bayern Munich are the team in Pot One that every club will want to avoid given the impressive manner in which they won the competition last month.
Inter’s strikeforce of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez, supported by a revitalised Alexis Sanchez, can trouble anybody, while no Premier League club will fancy coming up against Atalanta either.
Meanwhile, Rennes could cause a surprise after storming to the top of Ligue 1 after five rounds of matches. Rennes might have sold Edouard Mendy for £22m to Chelsea, but they have reinvested those funds elsewhere.
Group stage schedule:
- Matchday 1: October 20-21
- Matchday 2: October 27-28
- Matchday 3: November 3-4
- Matchday 4: November 24-25
- Matchday 5: December 1-2
- Matchday 6: December 8-9
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3ihkdgW
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