Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will meet in the CL group stage

Geneva – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will meet in the group stage of the Champions League for the first time, and fans could look again.

Messi’s Barcelona was pulled from the well of second seeds on Thursday to the group where Ronaldo’s Juventus team was already positioned as one of the main favorites. The group was later completed by Dynamo Kyiv and Ferencvaros.

Ronaldo, 35, and Messi, 33, had a nine-year rivalry in the Spanish league when the Portuguese star was with Real Madrid. However, they could never meet this early in the Champions League because clubs from the same country are separated in the draw.

They met in the 2009 final, when Messi scored when Barcelona beat Manchester United 2-0 by Ronaldo.

The dates of the games in Turin and Barcelona will not be confirmed until Friday, but fans could be present to watch the high-profile matchups.

UEFA said stadiums can be filled to 30 percent capacity for all the matches it organizes, including the Champions League, the Europa League and national team matches. However, only local fans will be allowed and local authorities have final approval.

Fans were not allowed into the stadiums in the final stages of the Champions League or Europa League in August, nor in the qualifying rounds in recent weeks.

Juventus and Barcelona paired up in the group stage of the 2017-18 season, Cristiano’s last in Madrid when he helped Real Madrid win a fourth Champions League title in five seasons. Messi scored two goals in a 3-0 home win over Juventus, before the teams drew 0-0 in Italy.

The stellar clash of superstars still left room for intriguing draws in the other seven groups.

Defending champion Bayern Munich teamed up with Atlético Madrid, Salzburg and Lokomotiv Moscow.

Paris Saint-Germain, the finalist defeated last season, were reunited with Manchester United, against whom they lost due to a controversial late penalty in the round of 16 in 2019, and Leipzig, which they beat in the semi-finals in August. Newcomer Istanbul Basaksehir is also in that group.

Liverpool, the 2019 champion, is among the first in a group of teams with reputations for playing open attack football: Ajax, Atalanta and Denmark’s Midtjylland, another Champions League rookie.

Six-time European champion Liverpool and four-time winner Ajax have met only once before in the competition, in 1966. Ajax eliminated Liverpool from the second round of the European Cup after a 5-1 victory in the one way in Amsterdam.

Real Madrid, the record 13-time champion, leads a group with storied European histories such as Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach.

Sevilla and Chelsea, winners of the last two Europa League titles, will play against two other newcomers to the Champions League, Krasnodar and Rennes. In its 119-year history, Rennes has never played a competitive match against its three group opponents.

Manchester City, seeking their first title, were second-seeded in a group with two former winners, Porto and Marseille, plus Olympiakos.

Zenit Saint Petersburg, seeded as Russian league champions, will play Borussia Dortmund, Lazio and Club Brugge.

The group stage begins on October 20 and is scheduled for December 9. Games are recoverable until January 28 if any are postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the draw, Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski was named the best male player in Europe last season. Bayern’s Hansi Flick won the coaches award.

The women’s award went to Pernille Harder, the Denmark forward who helped Wolfsburg reach the Champions League final. The German club lost to Lyon, whose coach Jean-Luc Vasseur won the women’s football award.

The ceremony began with the presentation of the UEFA Presidential Award to the great Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast and Chelsea.