MADRID, 30 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Real Sociedad and Sevilla FC will meet this Thursday (6:00 p.m.) their first rivals in the 2023/24 Champions League, with the draw for their group stage that a priori would seem demanding for madridistas , colchoneros and donostiarras, while the champions of LaLiga and the Europa League await a kinder path.
The five representatives of Spanish football will discover in this way their start in the maximum continental competition, whose tour will end on June 1, 2024 at Wembley Stadium (London, United Kingdom). The road to that final begins with this draw at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, UEFA’s usual venue for such an event.
Thus, there will be 32 teams divided into four drums; but this will happen for the last time, since in the 2024/25 edition there will be 36 teams. The ‘coconuts’ to avoid will now concentrate on a first drum with the current champions of the Champions League, the Europa League and six other champion teams from their domestic competitions.
Barça, LaLiga champion, will be in that first hype with Sevilla; for this reason, in addition to eluding the people of Seville, they will not face the fearsome Manchester City –defender of the title–, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. Nor will they face Feyenoord or Naples and Benfica, always annoying.
The groups of culés and sevillistas should not scare, although bass drum 2 threatens with the English Arsenal and Manchester United, along with Inter Milan and the Germans Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig. And it is that this second string of teams is almost as competitive as the first hype, where only Porto seems a benevolent rival for Barça.
With the ‘Dragons’ and the other six mentioned, Real Madrid shares the second ‘drawer’, which does have to fear that in their European challenge the current champion of the competition, the Bavarians or Kylian Mbappé’s PSG will cross paths, with their corresponding morbidity before the umpteenth rumors about the forward’s departure to Chamartín.
In that pot 2 there will also be Atlético de Madrid, which will look at the teams with the least cache of the third; exception for AC Milan, semifinalist of the 2022/23 Champions League. Affordable would be to run into Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, Sporting de Braga, Lazio or Red Star; They make up pot 3 together with PSV and FC Copenhagen, both with the ticket for this draw taken from the last qualifying round.
To close the draw, pot 4 will be one of the most competitive in recent editions, with weighty names. For example, Newcastle United, Union Berlin, RC Lens or Real Sociedad appear, who will once again listen to the iconic hymn of the competition after years of absence. In addition, in pot 4 will be Galatasaray, Glasgow Celtic and the surprising Young Boys and Royal Antwerp.
Thus, the five Spanish teams will attend a draw with multiple possible combinations, with rivals of very different levels and with the fear of a group of ‘death’ that Barça, Real Madrid, Atleti, Real Sociedad and Sevilla want to avoid. The route to the ‘Orejona’ will live the first day of its group stage on September 19 and 20.
–BOMB 1.
Manchester City (ING).
SEVILLA (ESP).
Bayern Munich (ENG).
Paris Saint Germain (FRA).
FC BARCELONA (ESP).
Benfica (POR).
Naples (ITA).
Feyenoord (PBA).
–BOMB 2.
REAL MADRID (ESP).
Manchester United (ING).
Inter Milan (ITA).
Borussia Dortmund (ALE).
ATLÉTICO DE MADRID (ESP).
RB Leipzig (ALE).
Porto (POR).
Arsenal (ING).
–BOMB 3.
Shakhtar Donetsk (UCR).
RB Salzburgo (AUT).
AC Milan (ITA).
Lazio (ITA).
Red Star (BE).
Sporting de Braga (POR).
PSV Eindhoven (PBA)
FC Copenhague (DIN)
–BOMB 4.
RC Lens (FRA).
Newcastle United (ING).
Union Berlin (EFA).
ROYAL SOCIETY (ESP).
Celtic de Glasgow (ESC).
BSC Young Boys (SUI).
Galatasaray (TUR).
Royal Antwerp (BEL).