At their premiere in the group stage of the Champions League, the footballers from Eintracht Frankfurt will face, among others, defending champions FC Barcelona from Spain. This was the result of the draw on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland. The other opponents in season A are FC Rosengard (Sweden) and Benfica Lisbon (Portugal). The German champions FC Bayern also have difficult opponents in front of them. In Group C of four, the Munich team will play against Paris St. Germain (France), AS Roma (Italy) and Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands). Last season, coach Alexander Straus’s team failed in the quarter-finals against Arsenal FC.
The group phase begins on November 14th and ends on January 31st, 2024. “This is a very, very exciting and attractive group,” said Eintracht coach Niko Arnautis: “With Barcelona, we are currently facing the biggest challenge in club football Europe. We look forward to magical nights at home and exciting trips.” Bayern qualified directly, Frankfurt confidently made it into the lucrative group phase, which already brings in 400,000 euros, in the last qualifying round against Sparta Prague (5:0/3:0).
The two-time title winners VfL Wolfsburg, who were only stopped by FC Barcelona (2:3) in the premier class final in the summer, surprisingly bowed out of the competition in the second round against Paris FC this week. Coach Tommy Stroot’s team lost the second leg of the last qualifying round 0-2 on Wednesday. The first leg ended 3-3. Since 2012, VfL has always reached at least the quarter-finals of the premier class.
