This will be our thread to talk about the Champions League for the 2019/2020 season. We're in pot 2. As of rn qualifying is not yet finished but the third qualifying round ends in a couple hours before the final qualifying stage. We SHOULD* have it a little lighter than last year. Inter and Atalanta are screwed. We'll have a better picture of who we can get after today.
We're actually in Pot 2, not 4 (as your graphic and the below from ESPN) " The teams in Pot 1 are now confirmed, while provisional pots can be drawn up for the others (though the teams in bold are guaranteed to be in that pot) based on the highest-ranked clubs progressing through qualifying. POT 1: Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg POT 2 (provisional): Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, FC Porto*, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Ajax* POT 3 (provisional): Benfica, Dynamo Kiev*, Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, FC Salzburg, Valencia, Inter Milan, Celtic* POT 4 (provisional): FC Copenhagen*, Dinamo Zagreb*, Lokomotiv Moscow, Genk, Galatasaray, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Lille *denotes must go through qualifying"
Funny enough .. It's half time of some of the 2nd legs and these are the scores (with their implications). Apoel eliminated Qarabag. Rosenborg eliminated Maribor. Club Brugge surprisingly eliminated Dynamo Kiev. Kobenhavn vs Red Star Belgrade looks to beading to extra time it's the 90+3rd min. Dinamo Zagreb eliminated Ferencvaros. Ajax is leading against PAOK (1-1 but they're 3-3 on agg after a 2-2 away draw) Olympiacos is up 1-0 (2-0 on agg in the 68th minute) Austrian club LASK Linz is up 1-0 (3-1 on agg) against Basel in the 67th min. Celtic is trailing to CFR Cluj 0-1 (1-2 on agg.) in the 51st min. Porto is down 0-3 at home at half time against Krasnodar (1-3 on agg.) Big upsets as of right now, we'll see how they unfold.
So the last round of qualifying starts next week and ends on the 27/28th i believe. Teams in bold are the favourites to progress. Dinamo Zagreb vs Rosenborg CFR Cluj vs Slavia Prague Young Boys vs Red Star Belgrade Apoel vs Ajax LASK vs Club Brugge Olympiacos vs Krasnodar If all the highest ranked teams progress the format would look like this: Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Prague, Young Boys, Ajax, Club Brugge and Olympiacos would all progress. Pot 1: Barcelona, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, PSG, Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atletico, Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar, Spurs, Benfica, Ajax Pot 3: Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia, Inter, Red Bull Salzburg, Olympiacos, Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb Pot 4: Lokomotiv Moskow, Genk, Galatasaray, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Lille, CFR Cluj, Young Boys. At that point the toughest draw we could get IMO (we can't draw teams from our own nation) would be: Man City, Valencia, RB Leipzig.
There are no teams that I fear are better than us in pots 3 or 4. Avoiding Leverkusen and Valencia in pot 3 and Leipzig in pot 4 would be nice but if we get them it isn't the end of the world
I don't know, I would have gone to a Chelsea game just in the hope of seeing us win against them, in light of the defeat that they had given us when they still had Drogba in their team. I bet most Napoli fans still remember it well, fiery as we are.
The last 2 times we got out we played against the future winners of the competition ... Our luck in the Champions League is so shit, we finally had an easy group and then they ******** us by giving us Real Madrid in the R16 after we won the group.
We found out today our possible opponents: Dinamo Zagreb eliminated Rosenborg Red Star Belgrade eliminated Young Boys Olympiacos eliminated Krasnodar. All that remains; CFR Cluj (0-1) Slavia Prague APOEL (0-0) Ajax LASK (0-1) Club Brugge Slavia Prague, Ajax and Club Brugge will likely be the final 3 making up the 32 teams of the Champions League. At that points the pots will go as followed: Pot 1: Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Man City, Juventus, Bayern Munich, PSG, Zenit Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atletico, Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar, Tottenham, Benfica, Ajax Pot 3: Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzberg, Olympiacos, Valencia, Inter, DInamo Zagreb, Lyon, Lokomotiv Moskow Pot 4: Genk, Galatasaray, RB Liepzig, Red Star Belgrade, Atalanta, Lille, Slavia Prague, Club Brugge We cannot draw any Italian sides and countries from the same nations may not be drawn together therefore drawing Bayern Munich is likely the best case scenario for us.
No teams from the same country can be draw in the same group. Teams from Russia and Ukraine cannot be draw in the same group. Draw takes place in 3 hours.
Worst draw possible would likely be Man City Napoli Valencia RB Liepzig I'm hoping for Barcelona Napoli Dinamo Zagreb Genk
I would figure that Lyon is the toughest team in the 3rd pot, ahead of Valencia and Leverkusen. I want to avoid Liverpool and Man City. I don't know what Barca will look like since they look to be signing Neymar.
I want Barca because it means we can't draw them in the R16 I'd take Liverpool or Man City if we got more favourable pot 3 and 4 teams like Olympiacos (Pot 3) and Genk (Pot 4)
I'm watching on the UEFA site.. and the site stream went down as soon as they were about to draw. Good start.