To be fair, it just a little bit over a month, so no wonder we’re still reeling from it. And yet, here we are today, getting ready for yet another Champions League season bound to have twists and turns and dramatic outcomes.
Full group stage draw
Group A: Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Salzburg, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group B: Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter, Mönchengladbach
Group C: Porto, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Marseille
Group D: Liverpool, Ajax, Atalanta, Midtjylland
Group E: Sevilla, Chelsea, Krasnodar, Rennes
Group F: Zenit, Dortmund, Lazio, Club Brugge
Group G: Juventus, Barcelona, Dynamo Kyiv, Ferencváros
Group H: PSG, Manchester United, RB Leipzig, İstanbul Başakşehir
Group E is what I call the Europa League group, where, if you wouldn’t know better, you could look at it and think it’s from the Europa League draw.
This is not to discredit any of the teams though. Sevilla was the team that showed us that Bayern weren’t invulnerable after all.
Chelsea was finally allowed to go on a shopping spree, buying both Werner and Havertz, while Rennes is having an almost perfect Ligue 1 start.
In the 2018–19 Europa League season, Arsenal just barely got past them. On the other hand, besides the 2013–14 Champions League semifinal, Chelsea have been lackluster in their campaigns and not really posing a threat to their opponents.
And finally, Krasnodar knocked out PAOK to earn a spot in the groups, which might be a reward in itself. I am giving Chelsea the edge juuuust barely to make it through. Sevilla are a record six-time Europa League winners, but I believe their team has enough quality to finish at the top of the group.
Predicted placements: 1) Sevilla 2) Chelsea 3) Rennes 4) Krasnodar
Group F also comes very close to being a Europa League group. Both Dortmund and Lazio showed signs that they could win their leagues in the last season, with Håland and Immobile eating goals for breakfast, but eventually, they weren’t able to stop the Bayern and Juventus supremacies.
Zenit’s best result in the Champions League is reaching the round of 16, while the last time Brugge made it past the Champions League groups, it was still called the European Cup.
Predicted placements: 1) Dortmund 2) Lazio 3) Zenit 4) Brugge
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