Champions League group draw: Man City to meet Barcelona, Bayern gets Atletico
Pep Guardiola will take his Manchester City side to Barcelona, as the Champions League draw yielded a number of mouthwatering matchups for the months ahead.
The two sides with many ties–Guardiola played for Barcelona and managed the club to two Champions League titles–were drawn together, as were Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid (Group D), Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund (Group F) and PSG and Arsenal (Group A).
In all, a cast of 32 teams will vie for Europe's biggest club prize, ranging from the regulars–Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus–to the newcomers–Leicester City, FC Rostov. Leicester drew a very favorable group for its maiden voyage, with the Foxes having to play Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagen.
Real Madrid, by virtue of being the defending champion, was in the seeded pot along with the seven champions of the leagues with the strongest UEFA coefficients (as of the end of 2014-15, per UEFA competition rules). The remaining three pots were determined by UEFA's club coefficient rankings. No teams from the same league were able to be drawn together in the same group, and UEFA had also stipulated that clubs from Russia and Ukraine be separated in the group phase.
Group play begins on Sept. 13 and 14 for the first matchday of the competition. The tournament will conclude June 3, 2017, at Cardiff's National Stadium of Wales.
As Champions League evolves more for the elite and rich, it loses its appeal, romance
Here are the complete results from the draw along with the complete schedule, as provided by UEFA:
GROUP A
Paris Saint-Germain
Arsenal
Basel
Ludogorets
GROUP B
Benfica
Napoli
Dynamo Kiev
Besiktas
GROUP C
Barcelona
Manchester City
Borussia Monchengladbach
Celtic
GROUP D
Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid
PSV Eindhoven
FC Rostov
GROUP E
CSKA Moscow
Bayer Leverkusen
Tottenham
Monaco
GROUP F
Real Madrid
Borussia Dortmund
Sporting Lisbon
Legia Warsaw
GROUP G
Leicester City
Porto
Club Brugge
Copenhagen
GROUP H
Juventus
Sevilla
Lyon
Dinamo Zagreb
The groups came from the following pots:
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Leicester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, CSKA Moscow
Pot 2: Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Manchester City, Sevilla, Porto, Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen
Pot 3: Basel, Tottenham, Dynamo Kyiv, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge, Borussia Monchengladbach
Pot 4: Celtic, Monaco, Beşiktaş, Legia Warsaw, Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Copenhagen, Rostov
