BarcelonaThe road to Wembley, the stage for Barça’s first and fourth European Cups, is off to a good start. The Blaugrana club came to Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum hoping to get off to an easy start to extend their Champions League run and end a disappointing two-year run in Europe in which they were unable to get past the group stage And he was lucky. Their opponents in the group stage will be the affordable Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and Antwerp. The reigning champions of La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup are aware that they still have a subject that resists them.
The continental competition is the great pending milestone for the project of Xavi Hernández, who after two participations has been unable to reach the round of 16 of the top European competition, triggering heavy defeats against Manchester United and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, a competition that until then Barça had not contested since 2004.
Barça’s rivals
Now there are no more excuses. The Terrassa coach’s team is bound to go through to the round of 16 after an easy draw. The Catalans, a priori, start as big favorites in Group H, a luck that has not been seen for years. Barça has benefited from the rival of pot number two, Porto, avoiding giants such as Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, runner-up in the English Premier League, or Inter Milan, finalist of the last edition and which was one of Barça’s executioners last season in the group stage. The Catalan club was unable to add the three points at Giuseppe Meazza, where the refereeing was not the most correct. Barca then failed to go from a draw to three on a fateful night at the Camp Nou that partly triggered Gerard Piqué’s departure midway through the season after an individual error in one of the goals Italian set.
Nico González’s Porto, who discarded Xavi this summer; the Shakhtar Donetsk of ex-Blaugrana Dmitró Txigrinski, who will be exiled to Hamburg this year because of the war in Ukraine, and Antwerp, a newcomer to Europe with familiar faces – ex-Blaugrana Mark van Bommel (the coach) and Marc Overmars (the sporting director) – form the list of Barça’s opponents in a league that will begin on September 19 and 20 with schedules yet to be confirmed.
Real Madrid, the highlight of every year
The white team, immersed in pot number two, could have seen faces with the last champion of the Champions League, Manchester City, with Paris Saint-Germain or with Bayern Munich. Finally, he will avoid figures like Haaland or Mbappé and will face Napoli, brand new Scudetto champions 33 years after the last time, which was with Diego Armando Maradona in their ranks. Sporting de Braga and Union Berlin will be their other two opponents. In short, a draw that, under normal conditions, should not put Carlo Ancelotti’s players against the ropes.
On the other hand, Luis Enrique’s PSG will have to sweat ink to qualify for the round of 16 by falling into the group of death: Borussia Dortmund, Milan and Newcastle will be their rivals to beat. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, on the other hand, will have it much simpler, as they will face Leipzig – one more year –, Red Star Belgrade and the Swiss Young Boys. As for Bayern Munich, they will have to fight for first place with a renewed Manchester United. In addition, Sevilla have been drawn in a difficult group, which will also feature PSV Eindhoven, Arsenal and Lens, while Real Sociedad will be looking for a place among Europe’s top 16 teams in a group in which he will have to play against Benfica, Inter Milan and Salzburg.
2023-08-31 19:26:57
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