BEVERLY HILLS, October 01, (THEWILL) – Lionel Messi’s Barcelona will meet Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus both Home and Away, for the first time since 2018, as contenders in Group G in the next instalment of the prestigious UEFA Champion’s League. This was revealed at the annual draws today in an elaborate ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
The event was a very familiar format with the exception at this time being the very glaring absence of representatives from the clubs in keeping with coronavirus restrictions. Pedro Pinto and Reshim Chowdhury were the show’s hosts, ably assisted by Giorgio Marchetti who ran the draw itself. Former Chelsea players, Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda were tasked with picking out the names. Of the 32 clubs to compete for the top prize in European football, six arrived at the draws via qualifying rounds. The teams were divided into the usual eight groups of four each based on seedings determined by their UEFA ranking and country protection in use as has been the norm for this stage of the competition.
In the draws, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea (the English Premier League contingent) all got to know their fates as well. It appeared, on the surface, that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United received the toughest draw of the bunch, placed as it is in the same group as the 2020 finalists Paris Saint Germain and semi-finalists Red Bull Leipzig, who lost to finalists PSG, in Group H. To complete that group is the relative minnow Istanbul Basaksehir.
THEWILL recalls that United beat PSG in Round 16 of the competition the last time around but failed to progress beyond that stage. Chelsea will face the champions of the last Europa league competition, Sevilla, with Liverpool contending with Ajax, Atalanta and minnows Midtjylland. Manchester City will slug it out with Porto to give a picture of the exciting matchups from these draws for the group stages for English clubs.
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Title holders Bayern Munich will begin the defence of their title in the group stages by meeting, among others, La Liga strongmen Atletico Madrid in Group A. Others in that group are Red Bull Salzburg and Lokomotiv Moscow. In that “El Clasico” group of Messi and Ronaldo’s Barcelona vs Juventus is included Dynamo Kyiv and Ferencvaros. Record-winning Real Madrid will faceoff against Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach who must be glad to be back in the competition.
2020/2021 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP DRAWS
GROUP A
Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid
Red Bull Salzburg
Lokomotiv Moscow
GROUP B
Real Madrid
Shakhtar Donetsk
Inter Milan
Borussia Monchengladbach
GROUP C
Porto
Manchester City
Olympiacos
Marseille
GROUP D
Liverpool
Ajax
Atalanta
Midtjylland
GROUP E
Sevilla
Chelsea
Krasnodar
Rennes
GROUP F
Zenit Saint Petersburg
Borussia Dortmund
Lazio
Club Brugge
GROUP G
Juventus
Barcelona
Dynamo Kyiv
Ferencvaros
GROUP H
Paris Saint-Germain
Manchester United
RB Leipzig
Istanbul Basaksehir
The competition’s group stages begin on Tuesday, the 20th of October. The 2021 final will be held on Saturday, the 29th of May at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, which was supposed to host the 2020 final before the pandemic struck and circumstances changed.
Also part of today’s ceremony was an award show where the following deserving individuals picked awards for their performance in the last competition.
Best Men’s goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)
Best Women’s goalkeeper: Sarah Bouhaddi (Olympique Lyonnais)
Best Men’s defender: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Best Women’s defender: Wendie Renard (Olympique Lyonnais)
Best Men’s midfielder: Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
Best Women’s midfielder: Dzsenifer Marozsan (Olympique Lyonnais)
Best Men’s forward: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Best Women’s forward: Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg)
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
