the truth hour has arrived. This Thursday begins the path that leads to the final of the 2020-21 Champions League in Istanbul on May 29 with the draw for the group stage of the maximum continental competition. Gone are the bad memories that the last edition left to the Spanish teams, in which none of them made it to the quarterfinals, with some other more than painful elimination (it is not necessary to specify which one; you do not have to make firewood from the fallen tree ). This Thursday, a few minutes after 5:00 p.m., Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético and Sevilla will know who their first rivals will be in this new European adventure.
On paper, the teams to avoid are pretty clear. Real Madrid and Sevilla are seeds of the tournament and will be part of Pot 1. The whites do so as current LaLiga champions, while the Sevilla players earned this privilege after being crowned champions of the Europa League. For this reason, they will not be able to face any of the other league champions from the six championships with the highest UEFA coefficient, which will also be in Pot 1: Liverpool (England), Bayern (Germany), Juventus (Italy), PSG ( France), Porto (Portugal) and Zenit (Russia). Nor will they be able to face Atlético or Barcelona, in Pot 2. The tournament rules prevent teams from the same country from meeting each other until the quarterfinals. Thus, for Real Madrid and Sevilla the great rival to avoid in the first phase is Guardiola's Manchester City, the great bogeyman of Pot 2 in which in addition to the other two Spanish clubs already mentioned are Ajax, Manchester United, Shakhtar, Chelsea and Dortmund.
For Barcelona and Atlético, luck will smile on them if they manage to avoid Bayern Munich, Liverpool and PSG (the last two Champions of the Champions and the last finalist) from Pot 1. Juventus are also tough opponents, but in recent years their performance in the top European competition has dropped considerably. Without a doubt, Zenit and Porto are the sweet experts that all the teams that are not in the hype of the champions want for this group stage.
In Pot 3, the level of the rivals decreases considerably, although there are some strong teams that in recent years have shown that they are capable of competing with anyone, such as Inter (finalist in the Europa League), Leipzig (semi-finalist in the last Champions League after eliminating Atlético) or Atalanta, which came close to charging PSG in the quarterfinals. Of Pot 4, without rivals of height, it is worth highlighting the presence of Ferencvaros, a classic that returns to the Champions League 25 years after its last participation and the Rennes de Camavinga, which we really want to see at the highest level. Let the race begin!
This is how the drums are made
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Sevilla, Bayern, PSG, Liverpool, Juventus, Zenit and Porto.
Pot 2: Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, Dortmund, Shakhtar, Ajax and Chelsea.
Pot 3: Inter, Lazio, Atalanta, Leipzig, Dinamo Kiev, Krasnodar, Salzburg Olympiacos.
Pot 4: Rennes, Ferencvaros, Basaksehir, Monchengladbach, Marseille, Bruges, Midtjylland and Lokomotiv.