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After the Champions League group stage draw on Thursday, it’s time to pick the winners and losers after the 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four. Some clubs like Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea got some really favorable draws, while other clubs like Manchester United will be sweating in six challenging games in hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.
Here are the winners and the losers:
Winners: Sports Fans
Look, the Champions League is a spectacle like no other in club football. Each game can produce magical moments and you can watch all the games this season on CBS All Access. But the main reason the fans are the winners is because we can see the rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo renewed in two games … and maybe more. Messi’s Barcelona was placed in the same group as Ronaldo’s Juventus. The two teams are in Group G with Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros.
They will be placed once in Barcelona and once in Turin, and if they advance to the group stage, who says they won’t meet again at some point?
There is nothing like Messi vs. Ronaldo, and now we have him again for the first time since Ronaldo left for Italy two seasons ago.
Losers: Manchester United and RB Leipzig
Complicated draw for two teams with enough quality to make a race. They are in Group H with the finalist PSG and a quality team at Basaksehir in Istanbul. Logic says that PSG win the group, meaning at least one between Man. United or RB Leipzig will be eliminated, and that team is expected to go to the Europa League.
At the moment, RB Leipzig has the slight advantage due to Man. United’s lack of consistency, but it’s a very open group that PSG probably doesn’t have to worry about, but United and Leipzig do.
Winner: Chelsea’s long-term plans
Quite a favorable group for Frank Lampard’s team by getting Seville, Krasnodar and Rennes. If the Blues can’t get out of that group … there should be massive repercussions. The Blues have started the Premier League season on a good note, but we can’t really see the full potential of this team until they are healthy. That means getting Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech back and giving them some time to bond, with Timo Werner and Kai Havertz now at the club. This weak group that Chelsea has gives them some leeway, as even if they are not that healthy they should move on.
Expect the Blues to enter the knockout stage and if they are healthy and fit, have a run.
Loser: RB Salzburg … again
Poor Jesse Marsch. The American manager led his team to the group stage last season, becoming the first American manager to coach in that part of the competition. Then he was grouped with some tough teams like Liverpool and Napoli. The Austrian team almost made it out of the group stage, but things look very different this season with the starts. The club lost superstar forward Erling Haaland in January to Dortmund, and now have to face Bayern Munich and Atlético Madrid in the group stage.
Marsch will feel like he and his team can get through, that’s just the positivity and ambition his team has. But this group, which also includes Lokomotiv Moscow, is as complicated as it could be.
Winners: Hungarian champions
Chances are you haven’t even heard of the Ferencvaros club before this week, but it’s the Hungarian champions who are back in the UCL group stage for the first time in a quarter century. They have almost no chance of moving forward, but they expect you to accept it, play with pride, and take it all in. Here is a Budapest-based club with little international experience that will also host Messi and Barcelona. like Ronaldo and Juventus in their stadium, and at the same time playing against them on the road.
Losers: Real Madrid
I think Real Madrid will pass from Group B, but this is a difficult group. The Whites will play Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and a really strong Borussia Monchengladbach, and if Zinedine Zidane’s team shows any inconsistencies they may just have to sweat. Real have produced some surprising results in recent years at UCL, including Club Brugge’s home draw after losing 2-0 a year ago. It won’t be easy and they could run into some issues if this team is out of sync and continues to deal with injury issues.
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