Reigning European champions Bayern Munich were paired with Manchester City for this season’s Champions League group stage, while the draw was particularly unkind for Arsenal and Celtic.
The draw, made in Monaco on Thursday, produced several mouthwatering ties as well as bringing together plenty of familiar foes.
Under Pep Guardiola, Bayern are looking to become the first club to retain the European Cup in the Champions League era.
They were drawn in Group D along with Manchester City, the Premier League giants who previously faced the Bavarians in the 2011-2012 competition.
On that occasion, City finished bottom of their section while Bayern went all the way to the final, and Roberto Mancini’s side also failed to progress from their group last season.
This time, though, City are expected to pose a greater threat under Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini, who has taken Villarreal and Malaga to the latter stages in the past and came up against Guardiola’s Barcelona when in charge of Real Madrid in 2009-2010.
Those two clubs are likely to fight it out for first place in a group that also contains Russian champions CSKA Moscow and Czech club Viktoria Plzen.
The draw was even kinder to last year’s European champions Chelsea. The Blues will face Bundesliga club Schalke, 1986 European Cup winners Steaua Bucharest and FC Basel — who lost to Chelsea in the Europa League semi-finals last season — in Group E.
David Moyes, though, will not be taking the opposition lightly in what will be his first Champions League campaign at the helm of Manchester United.
The English champions will be favorites to qualify for the last 16 from Group A, but they must still face Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, Spanish outfit Real Sociedad and Bayer Leverkusen.
The German side beat United in the 2002 semi-finals and are now coached by former Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia.
Arsenal came off worst of all, the English contenders in a Group F that contains last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund, Marseille and Napoli.
The Gunners faced Dortmund and Marseille in the group stage two seasons ago, but will be especially wary of Napoli, whose coach Rafael Benitez is a specialist at this level and who, in Gonzalo Higuain, boast a striker who might have joined Arsenal earlier this summer.
Group H is bustling with history, as Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax and Celtic — with 16 European Cups between them — come together.
This will be third consecutive season in which Barca and Milan have met but, remarkably, the Catalans and Ajax — united by their links to Johan Cruyff — have never faced each other in a competitive game.
Celtic beat Barcelona in last season’s competition, but their manager Neil Lennon knows the size of task that lies before the Scottish champions.
“I think it’s the best and the worst draw we could’ve got,” Lennon told Sky Sports News. “In terms of glamor, I don’t think it comes any better than Barca, Milan and Ajax, but in terms of football it doesn’t come any harder.”
Real Madrid face Juventus, Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen in Group B. As a result, new Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will come up against the Serie A champions, who he coached between 1999 and 2001.
“It could have been better, it could have been worse,” said Madrid’s Director of Institutional Relations Emilio Butragueno. “Games against Juventus are always very passionate and we have faced them many times in the past. With [coach Antonio] Conte in the past few years they have improved a lot, therefore they will be a very tough opponent.”
Paris Saint-Germain will expect to advance from Group C, which also contains Benfica, Olympiakos of Greece and Belgian champions Anderlecht, while Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg and Austria Vienna meet in Group G.
The opening round of group games will be played on Sept. 17 and 18.
SEESAW CONTEST: The Pistons remain top of the Eastern Conference after battling to a win over the Hawks in a game that saw the lead change 27 times The Phoenix Suns on Monday shrugged off an injury to Devin Booker to end the Los Angeles Lakers’ seven-game winning streak with an emphatic 125-108 victory on the road. Booker exited in the first quarter, but the loss of the star point guard did little to halt the flow of Phoenix points over the remainder of the game. Dillon Brooks led the Phoenix scoring with 33 points, while Collin Gillespie added 28 — including eight three-pointers — as the Suns romped to victory. The Lakers were left ruing a colossal 22 turnovers — at a cost of 32 Suns points — on a
New Zealand yesterday reached 231-9 at stumps on a first day of the first Test against the West Indies shortened by rain after Justin Greaves triggered a middle-order collapse with the wicket of Kane Williamson. New Zealand tumbled from 94-1 to 148-6 on a bowler-friendly wicket after Williamson was dismissed for 52, his 38th Test half-century. Michael Bracewell and Nathan Smith arrested the slide with a 52-run stand for the seventh wicket. Smith eventually fell for 23 and Bracewell for 47. After Matt Henry went for 8, Zak Foulkes and Jacob Duffy were both on 4 when bad light stopped play after 70
Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday scored twice and had an assist as Real Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-0 to end a three-match winless streak in La Liga. Eduardo Camavinga also found the net for Madrid as they moved back within one point of Barcelona, who beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 on Tuesday. Both 19th-round matches were moved forward because Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Club and Atletico Madrid are to play in the Supercopa de Espana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia next month. Real Madrid were coming off league draws against Girona, Elche and Rayo Vallecano. It was their second win in their past six matches in
IN-HOUSE BUSINESS: LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said that the reason for the team’s poor form was not due to Paul, but the player was not a good fit for them Chris Paul’s return stint with the Los Angeles Clippers has come to an abrupt and stunning end, with the franchise parting ways with one of its greatest players in a late-night meeting on Wednesday that adds another layer of drama to the team’s terrible start this season. The news was delivered in a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, that ended at about 2am, Clippers basketball operations president Lawrence Frank said. Frank said he made the decision to sever ties with Paul on Sunday then told the franchise’s career assist leader that he needed to see him on Tuesday in Atlanta. Frank did not confirm
RSS