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French former football player Thierry Henry shows a piece of paper bearing the name of FC Porto during the UEFA Champions League Group stage draw ceremony, on August 25, 2016 in Monaco. / AFP / Valery HACHE        (Photo credit should read VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)
French former football player Thierry Henry shows a piece of paper bearing the name of FC Porto during the UEFA Champions League Group stage draw ceremony, on August 25, 2016 in Monaco. / AFP / Valery HACHE (Photo credit should read VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images)VALERY HACHE/Getty Images

Champions League Draw 2016: Twitter Reacts to Group Schedule Reveal

Gianni VerschuerenAug 25, 2016

The draw for the group stage of the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League took place on Thursday, serving up several tantalising groups for some of Europe's biggest clubs.

Manchester City once again suffered a tricky draw, and the Premier League giants will take on Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic for a spot in the knockout stages. Tottenham Hotspur were drawn into arguably the most even group of all, including CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen and AS Monaco.

Newcomers Leicester City will take on FC Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagen, and defending champions Real Madrid go up against Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon and Legia Warsaw.

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Here's a look at the full draw:

PSGBenficaFC BarcelonaBayern Munich
ArsenalNapoliManchester CityAtletico Madrid
FC BaselDynamo KievBorussia MonchengladbachPSV
LudogoretsBesiktasCelticFC Rostov
CSKAReal MadridLeicester CityJuventus
Bayer LeverkusenBorussia DortmundFC PortoSevilla
TottenhamSportingClub BruggeLyon
MonacoLegiaCopenhagenDinamo Zagreb

The draw itself was once again a tedious affair, drawing the ire of Bleacher Report's Lars Pollman, who preferred a more streamlined approach:

Former Liverpool striker Ian Rush stole the show early for all the wrong reasons―tasked with assigning the clubs to their respective groups, he struggled opening the miniature footballs throughout the event.

BT Sport's Des Kelly couldn't help himself:

Apart from those setbacks, the draw itself went off without a hitch, and with the clubs scattered quite evenly across the pots, the potential for a true "group of death" was almost non-existent.

City's poor luck with the Champions League draw continued, however. Drawn as the second club into Group C, it meant current manager Pep Guardiola would come face-to-face with his former club Barcelona.

Kristof Terreur of Het Laatste Nieuws was hardly surprised:

Leicester City fans may have panicked after FC Porto came out of the draw as their first opponents―the Portuguese giants have an excellent reputation in Europe―but the rest of the draw played out fairly smoothly.

Belgian side Club Brugge won their first national title since the 2004-05 season last year and haven't been a force in Europe in a long time, and Copenhagen's European record isn't much better.

Sport Witness thought the Foxes would be quite happy:

Arsenal knew they would come up against at least one top club and got exactly that, as they were drawn with French champions Paris Saint-Germain. To draw FC Basel as the third club of Group A was less than ideal―the Swiss side have become regulars at this level―and Ludogorets will make for a tricky trip to Bulgaria.

TV personality Piers Morgan sounded confident:

Tottenham's group is likely the toughest to read, as all four clubs will have confidence in their ability to progress to the next round.

AS Monaco remain a top club in France and knocked Arsenal out of the tournament just two years ago, and CSKA have a huge home advantage―trips to Russia are never easy for teams from western Europe. Bayer Leverkusen will like their chances as well.

Bleacher Report's Karl Matchett liked the makeup of Group H, featuring Juventus, Sevilla, Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb, with the first two posing a mouth-watering matchup:

Real Madrid will like their chances against Borussia Dortmund, Sporting and Legia, and Group B, which features Napoli, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev and Besiktas, should also provide one of the tightest races.

Europe's top club competition will kick off on Tuesday, September 13.  

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