ALL 32 TEAMS have now been confirmed for the Champions League group stages following last night’s action.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to compile a short piece looking at the possible permutations ahead of this evening’s draw in Monaco.
Before that though, here’s some other useful information relating to the event:
- The draw takes place today from 16.45 Irish time.
- During the event, the winner of the 2013/14 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award will be announced, with Manuel Neuer, Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo all nominated for the prestigious accolade.
- Of the 32 clubs competing, 22 qualified automatically, while 10 qualified in recent days.
- Teams are divided into four pots based on teams’ UEFA coefficient. Two teams from the same country can’t be drawn together in the same group.
- The pots for tonight’s draw are as follows…
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, Porto.
Pot 2: Schalke, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Basel, FC Zenit, Manchester City.
Pot 3: Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Ajax, Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasaray, Athletic Bilbao.
Pot 4: Anderlecht, Roma, APOEL FC, BATE Borisov, Ludogorets Razgrad, NK Maribor, AS Monaco, Malmö FF.
(Alexis Sanchez’s goal helped Arsenal beat Besiktas and qualify for the Champions League last night)
So the best-case scenario for the respective English teams is as follows (h/t BBC Sport)…
Chelsea, Basel, Sporting Lisbon, Maribor.
Arsenal, Basel, Sporting Lisbon, Maribor.
Benfica, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Maribor.
Benfica, Basel, Liverpool, Maribor.
Meanwhile, the worst-case scenario for the Premier League sides can be seen below…
Chelsea, Paris St-Germain, Ajax, Roma.
Arsenal, Paris St-Germain, Ajax, Roma.
Real Madrid, Manchester City, Ajax, Monaco.
Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain, Liverpool, Roma.
Do you agree with the best/worst case scenarios? Who do you want your team to avoid?