Winners and Losers from Champions League Group-Stage Draw
The field is set for the group stage of the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League.
On Thursday, European football's governing body held the draw for the group stage, sorting 32 teams into eight groups—and immediately prompting endless hours of discussion across the world.
Which teams received favorable draws? Who got the short end of the stick? Here B/R selects winners and losers from the Champions League draw.
Full Draw and Coefficients
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Here is an overview of the eight groups. Seeded teams are listed first.
GROUP A: PSG, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Malmo
GROUP B: PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg
GROUP C: Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray, Astana
GROUP D: Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach
GROUP E: Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Roma, BATE Borisov
GROUP F: Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Olympiacos, Dinamo Zagreb
GROUP G: Chelsea, Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Maccabi Tel-Aviv
GROUP H: Zenit Saint Petersburg, Valencia, Lyon, Gent
And here is a look at the 32 teams in the four pots. UEFA coefficients are in parentheses (source: UEFA.com).
Pot 1 (top seeds): Barcelona (164.999), Bayern Munich (154.883), Chelsea (142.078), Benfica (118.276), Paris Saint-Germain (100.483), Juventus (95.102), Zenit Saint Petersburg (90.099), PSV Eindhoven (58.195).
Pot 2: Real Madrid (171.999), Atletico Madrid (120.999), Porto (111.276), Arsenal (110.078), Manchester United (103.078), Valencia (99.999), Bayer Leverkusen (87.883), Manchester City (87.078).
Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk (86.033), Sevilla (80.499), Lyon (72.983), Dynamo Kiev (65.033), Olympiacos (62.380), CSKA Moscow (55.599), Galatasaray (50.020), Roma (43.602).
Pot 4: BATE Borisov (35.150), Borussia Monchengladbach (33.883), Wolfsburg (31.883), Dinamo Zagreb (24.700), Maccabi Tel-Aviv (18.200), Gent (13.440), Malmo (12.545), Astana (3.825).
Winner: Chelsea
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With no disrespect to Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Group G is all about Chelsea and Porto. The latter two are past winners with rich histories in the competition, while the former can only be considered long shots.
Overall, the group has to be a win for Chelsea, who avoided Real Madrid in Pot 2 and drew teams from the middle of the pack in Pots 3 and 4. The Blues will cover the most miles of any English team in the group stage, but on paper only Porto should have a squad strong enough to worry Jose Mourinho.
As noted on Twitter by @sportingintel, Chelsea's immense wealth amounts to an astonishing 74.7 percent share of all the resources in Group G. If the Blues don't top the group, it will be a failure.
Mourinho must have enjoyed the draw. The Portuguese manager will coach his current team against Porto, the club with which he won his first European title, in 2004. In addition, he'll have a chance to beat Iker Casillas, the former Real Madrid goalkeeper who now plays for Porto. The two clashed in the Spanish capital, and no doubt both will be keen to get one over on the other.
Loser: Manchester City
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Manchester City must feel as though they're cursed.
Since making their first group-stage appearance in 2011-12, the Sky Blues have consistently drawn difficult groups. This season is no exception.
Manuel Pellegrini's side will play in Group D, which was probably the toughest draw of the day. Their three opponents will be Juventus, Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach. At ESPN FC, Gabriele Marcotti wrote:
"Man City, in particular, will be annoyed that even as they move up the UEFA rankings, they once again take a hit in the draw. Last season, it was Bayern, CSKA Moscow and Roma. Juventus, of course, were the losing Champions League finalists, Borussia Monchengladbach finished third in the Bundesliga, and Sevilla, the Europa League champions, had a summer of wheeling and dealing, and despite losing Aleix Vidal and Carlos Bacca, look stronger than a year ago.
"
City can take solace in the fact that Gladbach have started the season in poor form, losing each of their first two Bundesliga matches. And as Brian Marwood, the club's head of football administration, told Jason Burt of the Daily Telegraph, at least they didn't draw the usual suspects.
“It’s a little bit different this time,” Marwood said. “We didn’t get Barcelona and we didn’t get Bayern Munich—let’s hope we can get further in the competition. That means we have progressed.”
Marwood's wry humor will be a welcome relief for City fans after yet another tough draw. But there's no getting around it: Group D will represent a huge challenge.
Last season, City showed some progress in reaching the knockout phase for the second consecutive season, but the Sky Blues again came up against Barcelona—the eventual winners—in the round of 16. Even after receiving another tough assignment, Pellegrini's target will be another trip to the round of 16 and hopefully beyond.
Neither Fully Winners nor Losers: Manchester United and Arsenal
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Both Manchester United and Arsenal received a mixed draw, with some positives and some negatives.
Manchester United drew PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg in Group B. PSV were the lowest-rated side among the top seeds, according to UEFA coefficients, and United star Memphis Depay will surely relish the chance to score against his former club.
The trip to Moscow to face CSKA will be long, and Wolfsburg are capable of playing excellent football, though star man Kevin De Bruyne has been linked heavily with a transfer to Manchester City. All in all, it amounts to a manageable group, though certainly not one that will be a cakewalk. All four teams will feel they have a chance to advance.
"It is a very tough draw, but on the other hand also great to play against Manchester United and to meet Louis van Gaal and of course Memphis Depay again," PSV coach Phillip Cocu told UEFA.com. "CSKA Moskva and Wolfsburg are also two strong sides. It will be a tough task, but with very nice matches and challenges."
Arsenal, meanwhile, received a tough draw immediately in Bayern Munich, the second-highest-ranked team in Pot 1. The two clubs met in the knockout stages in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and Bayern eliminated Arsenal both times. The German club remains one of Europe's best, and Arsenal will have to be at their best to secure results in both matches.
Olympiacos might appear to be a favorable draw for the Gunners, but each time the teams have met in the Champions League—2009-10, 2011-12 and 2012-13—Olympiacos won on home soil. That only tells part of the story, since Arsenal had already qualified for the knockout stage before each of those losses, but the Gunners' record against their Greek opponents is poor.
Dinamo Zagreb round out Group F, and though they will be seen as the weak link, the trip to Croatia will be long for Arsenal. There will be no easy games for the Gunners in this group stage, but based on the talent in the squad, Arsene Wenger's side really should still expect to advance in one of the two top spots.
Winner: Valencia
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Valencia returned to the Champions League group stage this season after missing out each of the last two years. To reach this point, the Spanish side had to defeat Monaco, quarterfinalists last term, in a two-legged playoff.
Considering the two points above, one might have understood if Valencia had felt happy just to be back in the Champions League proper. But after Thursday's draw, Nuno Espirito Santo's men will be feeling like they have a chance to progress.
The draw, in the simplest of terms, was kind to Valencia. Leading Group H is the seeded team, Zenit Saint Petersburg. Traveling to Russia will not be easy, but Zenit were the second-lowest-rated team in Pot 1, according to UEFA's coefficients. In fact, all but two teams—Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City—in Pot 2 had better ratings than the Russian champions.
Lyon, meanwhile, stumbled through the preseason and have taken just one point from two home matches at the start of the Ligue 1 season. Finally, Gent were the third-lowest-ranked team in the UEFA coefficients, ahead of only Malmo and first-time qualifiers Astana.
Group H is wide open, and Valencia will be happy with the draw on their return to the Champions League.
Loser: PSG
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Someone had to draw Real Madrid, and that distinction went to Paris Saint-Germain.
Under UEFA's new rules for this season, the teams in Pot 1 consisted solely of domestic-league winners. That left no room for Real Madrid, the club with the highest UEFA coefficient rating. Demoted to Pot 2, Real Madrid represented the nightmare draw for all the top-seeded teams (though they could not be drawn with Barcelona).
One of the benefits of being a top seed, theoretically at least, is receiving a relatively straightforward draw and thus a good chance of advancing to the knockout stage as a group winner. But in drawing Real Madrid, PSG landed the toughest team possible from Pot 2—and the highest-ranked team in the entire group stage.
Winning the group will take a mighty effort for PSG. In addition, the Ligue 1 side must travel to Ukraine to face Shakhtar Donetsk, a team with plenty of Champions League experience. Even so, with the resources available to the club in terms of money and playing staff, Laurent Blanc's side should be able to move on.
But it won't be easy.
Winner: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
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It was a tough draw for PSG, but for superstar forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it meant a happy reunion is in the cards.
Before the wider world came to know Ibrahimovic as a brilliant, quirky genius, he started his career in his native Sweden with Malmo. PSG and Malmo will face each other in Group A, and so the 33-year-old Zlatan will be able to enjoy a late-career homecoming.
"One day I hope to experience the Champions League in Malmo on the pitch," Ibrahimovic tweeted on Wednesday after Malmo qualified for the group stage. While that might have been more of a hint about his future ambition to return as a player, Zlatan will be pleased to have the chance to play at his first club, even if he's wearing the jersey of the opposing team.
It's sure to be a grand occasion, but you can be certain Malmo will hope to get one over on their former star.
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