Champions League 2020/21

[PannickAtTheDisco]

least if we don't win the CL we don't have to play fucking Shakhtar again.

 

[mat]

Right, first attempt at predicting the group stages. A lot of assumptions made, but the one that affects us - we'll be in Pot 2 unless we win the 19/20 Champions League, in which case we move into Pot 1.

The teams in black have all qualified already, so its not going to change too drastically.

Pot 1
Real Madrid
Bayern
Juventus
PSG
Liverpool
Zenit
CL Winner
EL Winner

Pot 2
Atletico Madrid
Barcelona
Man City
Man United
Sevilla
Dortmund
Chelsea
Shakhtar

Pot 3
Porto
Benfica*
Ajax**
Dynamo Kyiv*
RB Salzburg**
RB Leipzig
Olympiacos**
Lazio

Pot 4
Celtic**
Lokomotiv Moscow
Atalanta
Inter
Marseille
Club Brugge
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Istanbul Basaksehir

Draw for the group stage is on the 1st October. Once the 19/20 competition has finished, I'll do another update.

* denotes needing to qualify through "the league route" (i.e did not win their domestic league). There are two teams who will qualify.
** denotes needing to qualify through "the champions route" (i.e they won their domestic league). There are four teams who will qualify.

Rags guaranteed pot 1 by David Gill then?

FFS...

 

[cptaidan88]

least if we don't win the CL we don't have to play fucking Shakhtar again.

But what a reward....

 

[mat]

least if we don't win the CL we don't have to play fucking Shakhtar again.

We'll go Zenit instead. Nicely squeezed in between Spurs A and Dippers H knowing our luck.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Draw and group stages delayed to allow qualifying to be completed. Preliminary rounds of qualifying begin the day after we play Real.

Group Stage draw to be held on 1st October.
MD1 - 20/21 October
MD2 - 27/28 October
MD3 - 3/4 November
MD4 - 24/25 November
MD5 - 1/2 December
MD6 - 8/9 December

First two rounds will be played before the chaos of a worldwide second wave hits. Winter lockdown, no football for months again.

 

[cleavers]

How do the (also ran) EL winners get in pot 1, they should be the last team in pot 4.

 

[JRockBlues]

As it stands right now wer're gonna draw Bayern, Ajax & Inter.
Should we go into pot 1 then substitute Bayern for Barca.

 

[cptaidan88]

20/21 competition starts today, with the preliminary round.

Tre Fiori (San Marino) v Linfield (Northern Ireland)
Drita (Kosovo) v Inter Club d'Escaldes

Draw for the 1st Round proper (where the likes of Celtic will be introduced) is tomorrow.

 

[King KdB of Belgium]

I have a but feeling that should we fail to win the Champions League. Then we will be in pot 2 where we will end up in the same group as Real Madrid, plus 2 others to give us a other group of death

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I have a but feeling that should we fail to win the Champions League. Then we will be in pot 2 where we will end up in the same group as Real Madrid, plus 2 others to give us a other group of death

I’d welcome a hard group for once. Most of the time the group stages of the CL are like watching the early rounds of the EFL Cup against lower division opposition. Piss easy games against very very poor sides. We score 5s 6s and even 7s with some regularity in the group stages. And to be honest, while goals are entertaining, the games aren’t, and we’ve had sterner tests against Championship teams in the domestic Cups than we get in the CL group stage.

We’ve only really had one really tough group in the last 7 years in the CL, and we even topped that group (2015 Juve Sevilla ’gladbach). We finished second a couple of times before but actually in easier groups than that.