Thanks so much for joining us for this season’s Champions League draw.
You can read all about the draw here in case you’re yet to cure that insatiable appetite for more Champions League action.
The first round of games kick off on September 17 so make sure you mark your calendar.
We’re pretty sure you won’t want to miss it. Until then, take care.
Champions League draw in full:
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiakos, Red Star Belgrade.
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Slavia Prague.
Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.
It’s always dangerous to predict which teams will taste success in the Champions League – just look at how Ajax shocked the world last season.
But you can be pretty sure Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will be happy with his side’s draw. The English champion will face Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta, which is making its debut in the competition.
Liverpool will also fancy its chances of progressing, though it lost to Napoli in last season’s group stage before winning the reverse fixture at Anfield.
If you’re Borussia Dortmund, you may be a little apprehensive after being grouped with Barcelona and Inter Milan. For Slavia Prague, it may prove nigh on impossible to qualify from the group.
Paris-Saint Germain and Real Madrid should provide two entertaining games in Group A, while the contests between Bayern Munich vs Tottenham in Group B are also likely to provide some drama.
In Group D, Juventus will renew acquaintance with Atletico Madrid, the team it defeated last year in the round of 16.
Ajax will be hoping for another good run in the competition this year after reaching the final four last time around. It’s going to be tough for the Dutch side though after being grouped with Europa League winner Chelsea, Spanish side Valencia and French club Lille.
Sitting side by side in the auditorium in Monaco, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could scarcely look more relaxed.
After competing against one another season after season, the two took a break last year with Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid for Juventus while Messi continued his magic at Barcelona.
The two men are inextricably linked through their rivalry, brilliance and capacity to push one another to yet further greatness.
So did the Portuguese star miss the man who he is so often compared with?
There aren’t many players who can say they’ve beaten Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to a top individual prize – but Virgil van Dijk has just done exactly that.
The Liverpool defender has been named as the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year after helping his side win the 2019 Champions League.
The Dutchman has been a colossus at the heart of the Liverpool defense and has grown into one of the world’s best.
“I need to thank my teammates, without them I would not have achieved what I have achieved,” he told BT Sport.
“It has been a long road and it’s part of my journey. I’m very proud to get this trophy. It’s credit to everyone who has helped me.”
England star Lucy Bronze has been named as UEFA’s Women’s Player of the Year.
The Lyon defender was one of the outstanding players at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
She beat off competition from France’s Amandine Henry and Lyon teammate Ada Hegerberg.
Ada Hegerberg, the winner of the first ever women’s Ballon d’Or, is the overwhelming favorite to secure a second UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award.
The Norwegian star, who boycotted the Women’s World Cup over a disagreement with her country’s football association, led Lyon to a record-extending sixth Women’s Champions League title with a first-half hat-trick in the final.
The 24-year-old is bidding to become the first ever two-time winner but faces stiff competition from two Lyon teammates: Lucy Bronze and Amandine Henry.
In the summer, Bronze – widely considered the world’s best full-back – helped England to reach the Women’s World Cup semifinal, while Henry captained France to the quarterfinal on home soil.
Will Virgil van Dijk emulate last year’s winner Luka Modric and pip the two biggest superstars in football, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, to be named Men’s Player of the Year?
The omens are good for Liverpool’s imposing Dutch defender; you have to go all the way back to 2011/12 for the last time a player that didn’t play for the Champions League winning team scooped the award.
However, a defender has never previously made it into the top three, let alone won the prize – though Van Dijk certainly has a realistic chance.
He was an integral part to a Liverpool defense that conceded just 22 goals in the Premier League last season, less than any other side, and also kept a further six clean sheets in his side’s victorious Champions League campaign.
Here’s the complete draw for the Champions League group stage.
What do you think? Tasty, eh?
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiakos, Red Star Belgrade.
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Slavia Prague.
Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.
With three of the four teams now drawn for each group, it looks as though Group F will be this year’s ‘group of death.’
Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and a revamped Inter Milan offer up a mouth-watering list of fixtures.
With Antonio Conte now in charge and boosted by the arrival of Romelu Lukaku (and soon Alexis Sanchez), Inter are one of the more exciting projects on the continent.
For Italian side Atalanta, this is the moment it has been waiting for.
After finishing third in Serie A last season, Atalanta will compete in the Champions League for the first time in its 112-year history.
Atalanta, which finished above Inter, AC Milan and Roma last season as well as reaching the final of the Coppa Italia, scored 77 goals in Serie A – more than anybody else.
Oh, and look out for Colombian striker Duvan Zapata, he scored 23 of them.
The third pot has been opened….
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge,
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiakos
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb
Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan
Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia
The second pot has just been opened and my word!
Bayern has been paired with Tottenham, PSG will face Real Madrid,
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid
Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur,
Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk
Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid
Group E: Liverpool, Napoli,
Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund
Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica
Group H: Chelsea, Ajax
Former Manchester United and France star Eric Cantona has been honored with the 2019 UEFA President’s Award, given for “outstanding achievements, professional excellence and exemplary personal qualities.”
In typical Cantona fashion, the 53-year-old gave a bizarre, cryptic acceptance speech as a confused-looking Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi looked on – try and decipher this for yourselves!
“Soon science will not only be able to slow down aging of the cells, soon science will fix the cells and so we become eternal. Only accidents, crimes, wars will still kill us but, unfortunately, crimes and wars will multiply. I love football. Thank you.”
The balls are out and our top seeds have been assigned their groups.
Group A: Paris Saint-Germain
Group B: Bayern Munich,
Group C: Manchester City
Group D: Juventus
Group E: Liverpool
Group F: Barcelona
Group G: Zenit St. Petersburg
Group H: Chelsea
Nobody has scored more Champions League goals than Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese star has netted 126 times in Europe’s top competition, with 65 of those coming in knockout ties.
Ronaldo scored six times in the competition for Juventus last season before the Italian giant was stunned at the quarterfinal stage by Ajax.
Ronaldo, who won the competition four times while at Real Madrid and once with Manchester United, is hoping to lead Juventus to Champions League glory for the first time since 1996.
At one point, it looked entirely likely that Ajax – last season’s surprise package and beaten semifinalist – would miss out on the group stages entirely.
Due to the Dutch domestic league’s poor UEFA ranking, the Eredivisie champion had to come through two qualifying rounds to reach this year’s competition.
After narrowly edging past Greek side PAOK 5-4 on aggregate, Ajax booked its place in the draw by beating Cypriot team APOEL FC thanks to a 2-0 home win.
Losing key players Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Kasper Dolberg and Lasse Sch?ne from last season’s semifinal means Ajax could struggle to replicate those feats.
While the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern will be confident of progressing to the knockout phase, there are plenty of dangers lurking in pots two and three.
Real Madrid, 12-time champion of Europe, is in the second pot, alongside city rival Atletico Madrid, last year’s finalist Tottenham, and 2013 runner-up Borussia Dortmund.
Ajax, which reached the semifinals of the competition last season, is back once again having qualified through a playoff against Cypriot club Apoel Nicosia.
Napoli, Benfica and Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk could also provide testing opposition.?
There are also plenty of potentially tricky teams awaiting Europe’s heavyweights in pot three.
Inter Milan, buoyed by the recent signing of Belgium international Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United, will certainly be one to watch.
Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen and Spain’s Valencia, both of which have reached the final of the competition, will also provide a difficult examination.
Lyon, Salzburg, Olympiakos, Bruges will also be hoping to spring a surprise, particularly at home.?
It seems only yesterday that Liverpool overcame Tottenham in Madrid to become European champion for a sixth time.
A remarkable campaign, in which it overturned a 3-0 first leg defeat by Barcelona in the semifinal to win 4-3 on aggregate, was rounded off by winning an all-English final in the Spanish capital on June 1.
But can Liverpool prevail once again? Boss Jurgen Klopp is unsure.
“I will have no problem with it (reaching the final) if it happens again, but at this moment I am not too sure it will,” Klopp told UK media on Wednesday.
“We have the same chance like everyone else, but that is all, and I don’t see us, the English teams, dominating. I really think a lot of teams have a good chance.”
So how does this draw work then? What’s a “Coefficient”? Can Liverpool play Tottenham again? So many questions.
Fortunately, Ben Morse is here to guide you through the permutations ahead of the draw.
The 32 teams are split into four pots with the top one, which includes holder Liverpool and Europa League winner Chelsea, also joined by the champions of the continent’s six highest-ranked leagues. Those teams are Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain and Zenit St Petersburg.
The remaining 24 teams are divided into pots two to four according to their club coefficient rankings – a ranking system devised by UEFA based on a team’s previous results in Europe.
No team can play another team from its own association, ensuring?Tottenham, for example, which is in pot two, will not be drawn against one of the other English sides.
Pot one:
Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg.
Pot two:
Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham, Ajax, Benfica.
Pot three:
Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, Salzburg, Olympiakos, Club Bruges, Valencia, Inter Milan, Dinamo Zagreb.
Pot four:
Lokomotiv Moscow, Genk, Galatasaray, RB Leipzig, Slavia Prague, Red Star Belgrade, Atalanta, Lille.
Hello!
Welcome to the draw for the 2019/2020 European Champions League and if you’re anything like us, you’ve probably spent the day humming that famous theme tune and creating various versions of the infamous ‘group of death’.
Anyway, the waiting is now over, the Champions League is back and quite frankly, we cannot wait for it to get started.
All eyes are on Monaco for the group stage draw of the competition with all 32 teams eyeing a place in the showpiece final on Saturday May 30 in Istanbul.
Excited? You should be. So sit back, relax, soak it in, and let us guide you through the action.