Seems like one of those seasons when there’s a huge advantage to winning your group instead of coming second. Porto, Ajax, Lazio or Man Utd if finish first. Bayern, ManCity, Liverpool, Chelsea, Dortmund, PSG if finish second, as things stand.
(Nearly) Halfway through the final matchday. Confirmed group winners Confirmed group runners-up Confirmed through to Round of 16 Still in contention to advance Group A: Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, RB Salzburg Group B: Borussia Mönchengladbach, Shakhtar Donetsk, Real Madrid, Internazionale Group C: Manchester City, FC Porto Group D: Liverpool, Atalanta, Ajax Group E: Chelsea, Sevilla Group F: Borussia Dortmund, Lazio Group G: Juventus, FC Barcelona Group H: RB Leipzig, Paris Saint-Germain
Yup, and now we've screwed that up and could face Bayern, Liverpool, ManCity, Chelsea, BVB, RBL/PSG, or the Group B winner if it is not Real Madrid, with the 2nd match on the road, possibly even with fans.
Group stage is now complete. Group winners Group runners-up Group A: Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid Group B: Real Madrid, Borussia Mönchengladbach Group C: Manchester City, FC Porto Group D: Liverpool, Atalanta Group E: Chelsea, Sevilla Group F: Borussia Dortmund, Lazio Group G: Juventus, FC Barcelona Group H: Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig Round of 16 draw to be conducted on Monday 14 December at 12 noon CET (6:00am U.S. ET)
Great! So Barca can get Bayern, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Dortmund or PSG. Would definitely lose to 5 of those. Dortmund might only be 60/40 in their favor. LPB only has 4 possibilities: Leipzig, Lazio, Porto, Atalanta.
Barca had the 3rd best campaign of all teams after Bayern and Juve. We are rewarded with those options. Madrid had the worst campaign of any group winner ... they are rewarded with those 4 options. Perhaps Atalanta can get them. Having said that, I actually have an optimistic feeling that this time around, we won't choke in the 2nd away leg like previous years ...
Borussia could be OK ... specially without Haaland. Out of the rest, I think I'd take Man City to be honest.
Also these are the the best groups winners since like forever I mean BVB and Dortmund are the easy choices now
Order of draw: Borussia Mönchengladbach -v- Manchester City Lazio -v- Bayern Munich Atlético Madrid -v- Chelsea RB Leipzig -v- Liverpool FC Porto -v- Juventus FC Barcelona -v- Paris Saint-Germain Sevilla -v- Borussia Dortmund Atalanta -v- Real Madrid
Probably the 3rd worse out of the 6 options. But its a close third. I think we match up terribly against PSG, even though they don't look as strong in other areas as before (i.e midfield & defense). I could even imagine Levante scoring 3-4 goals in Camp Nou if they had Mbappe and Neymar up front yesterday.
Weirdly the 538 computer fancies us to advance past PSG - 62% chance: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/champions-league/ Bookies odds to win it all favors PSG (pays 12:1, tied for 4th favorite with Juve), Barca pays 20:1 & 8th favorite. Bayern top pick 2.75, followed by City 4.5 and Liverpool 6.5 https://www.oddschecker.com/us/soccer/uefa-champions-league/champions-league/winner
Very likely. Unless there is something happen this winter (next president, new players, Messi back his best)
Bump (I assume next year's CL final will be in Istanbul so the thread title would still apply ) CL 2021 group stage pots for draw starting to take shape. Lots of elite teams in Barca's pot which opens the door for a possible soft group for Barca, although nothing will be easy of course. Teams that Barca will avoid since they are in the same pot include Juve, PSG, Liverpool and probably Chelsea and Dortmund too. Pot 1: Man City, Bayern, Atleti, Inter, Lille, Sporting, Man Utd or Villarreal, Chelsea or Zenit If the favorites win the European finals then it will be Man Utd and Zenit. So, lots of "good" potential draws there. Milan in pot 4 would be one to avoid