Barça and Atlético left badly stopped of a Champions draw that left spectacular duels and a City-PSG that will go around the world without finally facing Messi with Cristiano. More luck had Madrid, Sevilla and Villarreal among the Spanish representatives, although none of them can be trusted. The Champions does not allow concessions or failures, not even in the most accessible groups. Lhe tournament league will begin on September 14 and end on December 8.
Madrid practically traced the group of last year, with Inter and Shakhtar again present, although with the condition that the nerazzurri They have sold Lukaku and Achraf, in addition to trading Conte for Simone Inzaghi. The Ukrainian side, who already beat Madrid in both games the previous season, suffered against Monaco to be in the group stage, but will fight again with the same Brazilian recipe as always. The exotic touch will be that of the Moldovan Sheriff Tiraspol, who makes his debut in a Champions League and will be a rival of the whites. Play in a region, Transnistria, not recognized internationally.
Barça, meanwhile, will revive old ghosts against Bayern, with the very fresh memory of 2-8 two years ago. Without a doubt, Nagelsmann's team is one of the worst rivals that could touch them, so the feeling after the draw cannot be good. The best news for the Catalans is that Benfica and Dinamo Kiev, the other two components of the group, considerably softened the difficulty. The Ukrainians, by the way, were already rivals of the Catalans last season.
UEFA
Perhaps the worst stopped was Atlético, who will have to face three European champions like Liverpool, Porto and Milan. The reds are an incentive for the mattress team, which was already able to eliminate them at Anfield two years ago in the last match with the public before the pandemic. Sergio Conceiçao's Porto and Pioli's Milan, led by Ibrahimovic, will make qualifying very difficult. The Portuguese eliminated Juventus in the previous edition and are very competitive, while the Italians return after years of absence.
Better luck had Villarreal and, above all, Seville. Those of Lopetegui fell in the simplest group together with Lille, Salzburg and Wolfsburg. None of them are a great in Europe, although they are teams with a medium profile that can complicate the classification of the Hispanics. In the case of the Castellón team, the main thing will be the duel against United that will serve as revenge for the last final of the Europa League won by Villarreal. Atalanta and Young Boys will be alongside them.
In addition, the draw resulted in brutal duels in the remaining groups. PSG ended up in the same as City, which will help Messi and Guardiola meet again and, who knows, if with Cristiano Ronaldo as a citizen player. Leipzig and Bruges will have a difficult time taking the first two places away from them. Another spectacular meeting is that the one that Chelsea and Juventus will live, a high-level match for the current European champions. Zenit and Malmoe will accompany you.