The Champions League moves closer to its main rounds. The remaining places-settled after last night’s round of qualifiers- are now filled, giving final form to the club’s contesting in the 2022/23 edition. UEFA bosses and club representatives will gather in Istanbul later tonight to decide the draws for the group stages, which begin on September 6. The 32 teams go into four pots, depending on last season’s results. But it is designed such that, bar any upset, the heavyweights will progress into the next round.
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The Pots
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Porto, Ajax.
Pot 2: Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, RB Leipzig, Tottenham Hotspur.
Pot 3: Borussia Dortmund, RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting Lisbon, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympic Marseille
Pot 4: Club Brugge, Celtic, Maccabi Haifa, FC Copenhagen, Dinamo Zagreb, Viktoria Plzen, Rangers FC, Benfica.
Each group- eight in total- comprises one club from each of the four pots. As ever, clubs from the same league do not face each other till the quarter-finals.
Whom will the heavyweights draw?
Defending champions Real Madrid can potentially draw from five of the eight clubs in pot 2. They include last season’s final opponents Liverpool, 2020/21 champions Chelsea, twice winners Juventus, German runner-up RB Leipzig and Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur. Pots 3 and 4 are an open field for the record champions.
Premier League champions Manchester City will face one from Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and RB Leipzig. A potential reunion for Erling Haaland is on the cards if the Blues draw pot three big boys, Borussia Dortmund. With the two Glasgow giants in the fray (in pot 4), a ‘Battle of Britain’- ties between English and Scottish clubs- is also on the cards. This holds for all English clubs in the running, and not just City.
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For six-time winners Bayern Munich, apart from Bundesliga rivals Leipzig, they can be pooled against all other clubs in pot 2. From pot 3, they will avoid Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, but the rest remain in dread of squaring up against Julian Nagelsmann’s side. PSG’s petro-dollar fuelled Champions League pursuit continues into yet another season. While all eight are in the running to vie alongside the French champions, pooling Barcelona in the group stages would guarantee Messi (and Neymar’s) return to the Nou Camp.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham avoid Manchester City from pot 1 and the rest from pot 2. Pots 3 and 4 don’t offer any exemptions, but all three will expect to thrive against opponents in the lower rungs. Cash-strapped Barcelona will be wary of a rematch with Bayern but are a better team than the ones who conceded eight against them a few moons back. It will also set up an enticing return for Robert Lewandowski.
Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt make their first foray into Europe’s top tier. Struggling in the Bundesliga, they hope to make the best of potential trips to European footballing bigwigs.
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The big misses
Thrice champions Manchester United’s woeful 2021/22 campaign saw them miss out on a Champions League berth. Their arch-rivals from the late 90s to mid-2000s, Arsenal also do the rounds in the Europa League. Russian clubs remain banned from the competition, while Shakhtar Donetsk represents war-torn Ukraine (or is it the Donetsk People’s Republic?).
The draw will be telecast live on the Sony Sports Network from 9.30 PM IST.
