Pumps for Madrid and Seville; luck for Celta, Barça and Atleti

UEFA has held the draw for the Youth League, which this year will have a new format due to the pandemic. The group stage is eliminated and the 64 participating teams will play direct playoffs. They will be resolved as a single match, starting the competition on March 2 and 3. It is divided into two routes: on the one hand, the 32 participants in the current edition of the Champions League and, on the other, the 32 national champions of the confederations with the best coefficient. At the crossroads of eighths, both routes will merge.

In the draw there were five Spanish teams, four as participants in the Champions League (Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Atlético and Sevilla) and Celta as national champions. Fortune has turned its back on Real Madrid (current champion) and Sevilla. The whites are paired with Manchester United and will also have to play in England, while the Andalusians must be measured at PSG but at least they will have the field factor.

Better luck they have had Barcelona and Atlético, who will play Dinamo Kiev and Midtjylland, respectively. The bad news is that both will have to do it abroad, with long trips. The blaugrana will travel to Ukraine and the rojiblancos must travel to Denmark.

Finally, Celta, who are making their debut in the competition, should not have problems to overcome this first phase. He will play against Olimpia Ljubljana and although the match will be played in the Slovenian capital, The Galicians have one of the best generations in their history and are one of the favorites in the phase of the national champions, who will only face each other in the first two rounds.

This is the raffle:

Champions route participants

Olympiacos-City

Inter Bayern

Sevilla-PSG

Shakhtar-Porto

Ajax-Krasnodar

Manchester United-Real Madrid

Basaksehir-Bruges

Atalanta-Leipzig

Zenit-Rennes

Juventus-Dortmund

Midtjylland-Athletic

Chelsea-Salzburg

Liverpool-Marseille

Dynamo Kiev-Barcelona

Lokomotiv-Ferencvaros

Mönchengladbach-Lazio

Route of the national champions

Zabrze (Poland) -PAOK (Greece)

Olimpia Ljubljana (Slovenia) -Celtic (Spain)

APOEL (Greece) -Viitorul (Romania)

Apolonia (Armenia) -Gyori ETO (Hungary)

GNK Dinamo (Croatia) -Rosenborg (Norway)

Hammarby (Sweden) -Wateford (Ireland)

Galatasaray (Turkey) -AZ Alkmar (Netherlands)

Rangers (Scotland) -Cologne (Germany)

Angers (France) -Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)

Genk (Belgium) -MSK Zilina (Slovakia)

Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) -Benfica (Portugal)

Basel (Switzerland) -Odense (Denmark)

Tiraspol (Moldova) -Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan)

Chertanovo (Russia) -Maccabi Haifa (Israel)

Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) -Ludogorets (Bulgaria)

Skhendija (Macedonia) -Gabala (Azerbaijan)