Ian Hawkey analyses all eight groups of the Uefa Champions League draw announced in Monaco on Thursday and gives his predictions.
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GROUP A
Clubs: Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Basel, Ludogorets
• Paris Saint-Germain, lords of all they survey in French football, are beginning to feel the glass ceiling of elite European competition. They have spent the sort of sums in the last five years that now make a first appearance in a Champions League final an expectation, not a hope. Arsenal can advise them on how it feels to feature only as regular also-rans. Always in the knockout phase, but not for 10 years in the last two, the London club ought to progress to the next round, but may have to do so in the slipstream of a PSG now coached by Unai Emery, who knows a little about reaching European finals, after his successive Europa League titles with Sevilla.
Prediction
Winners: PSG; second: Arsenal
GROUP B
Clubs: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kiev, Beskitas
• It has been another August to diminish Italian football’s self-esteem, with Roma bundled unceremoniously out of the Champions League at the play-off stage by Porto. Serie A clubs are suffering setbacks at the last qualifying hurdle on a regular basis. Now Napoli, runners-up domestically, meet Portugal’s finest, Benfica, which may give them some unease. The trip to Dynamo Kiev will pile on the air miles, too, and Besiktas is not the gentlest place to visit. Nor, though is Naples’s San Paulo, where loyalists will enjoy hosting these big European nights again.
Prediction
Winners: Benfica; second: Napoli
GROUP C
Clubs: Barcelona, Manchester City, Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic
• Poor old Glasgow Celtic. They have suffered enough heart-stopping moments already in this year’s competition, what with losing a leg in Gibraltar and suffering nail-biting finishes against Kazakh and Israeli opposition in qualifying. Now the Scottish champions land opponents from the top three rated leagues in Europe. They might relish a so-called Battle of Britain, against Manchester City but the reality is a group where the clubs seeded highest will have to slip up very badly to end up contemplating Europa League football. The jousts between Barcelona and Manchester City will attract the attention, not least as an early measure of how Pep Guardiola is tailoring City for European pre-eminence.
Prediction
Winners: Manchester City; second: Barcelona
GROUP D
Clubs: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSV Eindhoven, Rostov
• Welcome to the big time, Rostov of Russia. The first-timers to the Champions League performed something of a coup by eliminating Ajax, four-time winners of the European Cup on Wednesday night. Less than a day later, they felt like lightweights once more. Bayern and Atletico fought out a tense semi-final in last season’s competition, Atletico then going to within a penalty shoot-out of winning the title for the first time. Bayern will be keen to avenge that narrow defeat to the Spanish club and their new manager, Carlo Ancelotti might quietly remind Atletico that, while at Real Madrid, he stymied two of Atletico’s European campaigns.
Prediction
Winners: Bayern Munich; second: Atletico Madrid
GROUP E
Clubs: CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco
• Thursday’s draw ceremony was held in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The club from the Principality, third in last season’s French league, might wonder if Uefa have unknowingly thanked them for the use of their space with a reasonable set of midweek tasks this autumn. CSKA Moscow, though savvy in the ways of the Champions League group phase, looked the weakest of the top seeds, and Monaco, who surprisingly eliminated Villarreal on Tuesday, will hope they have the nous to tame Bayer Leverkusen, too. Likewise Tottenham Hotspur, back in the competition after a long absence, who will be expected to survive in it into February from this group.
Prediction
Winners: Tottenham; second: Monaco
GROUP F
Clubs: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon, Legia Warsaw
• There are not too many away grounds where Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliance is feted by fans as much as it probably should be. Sporting Lisbon, where he began his professional career, is an exception. The outstanding candidate for World Footballer of the Year 2016 will go back there with the reigning European club champions especially appreciated for having helped make Portugal last month’s European Championship winners. Sporting have it tough in this group, with Madrid and Borussia Dortmund to play, the runners-up in last season’s Spanish Primera Liga and in the German Bundesliga respectively. Madrid versus Dortmund has plenty of fresh baggage as well, not least from Dortmund’s win over Madrid in the 2013 semi-final.
Prediction
Winners: Real Madrid; second: Borussia Dortmund
GROUP G
Clubs: Leicester City, Porto, Club Bruges, Copenhagen
• The fairy tale of the Premier League wanted a sequel, and this is not a bad one for Leicester City. They will not have a glamorous, top-of-the-bill name, a Real Madrid or an Atletico to welcome them into their maiden voyage in the Champions League, but they do have a good chance of putting together some fortifying results to prepare them for the knockout phase, to which they ought to progress at the expense of Copenhagen and Bruges. Porto, conquerors of Roma in midweek, might be tougher test, home and away, for Leicester, whose supporters can relish trips that are not too taxing in terms of distance.
Prediction
Winners: Porto; second: Leicester City
GROUP H
Clubs: Juventus, Sevilla, Lyon, Dinamo Zagreb
• A spot of déjà vu for Juventus and Sevilla, who shared a group this time a year ago, and did so with heavy heart. Back then it also included Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach. This time the serial Italian champions and serial winners of the Europa League have a milder pair of fellow runners in the race for the last 16, although they should anticipate a stronger Lyon than the version that stumbled around the Champions League last season. The French club may very well consign Sevilla to another tilt at the secondary European tournament by pipping them to second place.
Prediction
Winners: Juventus; second: Lyon
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