I know, it might be a bit premature to start a Champions League thread when the final of last season was only a few weeks ago, but I saw this article on the official site and figured I might as well start a thread for next season.

 

Even the draw for the group stage is still months away, but I'd rather speak about who we might play against, rather than what Twitterdom is saying about our possible signings.

 

Just like the article said, we're in the first pot, so that immediately rules out some heavyweights. Then again, the other pots have some tough opponents as well:

 

POT 1

Manchester United

*Arsenal

Chelsea

Real Madrid

Barcelona

Bayern Munich

Benfica

Porto

 

POT 2

Shaktar Donetsk

Atletico Madrid

PSG

Marseille

*Lyon

*AC Milan

*Schalke 04

CSKA Moscow

 

POT 3

Manchester City

Juventus

*Basel

Borussia Dortmund

*Zenit St. Petersburg

Olympiacos

Galatasaray

Ajax

 

POT 4

Napoli

Bayer Leverkusen

*Celtic

FC Copenhagen

*APOEL F.C.

*Steua Bucharest

Anderlecht

*BATE Borisov

 

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These are the highest ranked teams, but not all of them are certain of their place in the group stages. I've marked the ones who have to fight their way through the qualifiers with an asterisk(*) and the ones who already have booked their place in the group stages are in bold type.

 

If some of these 32 teams don't make it to the group stage, then the pots will change and some teams might benefit from it like Atletico Madrid, who will be in pot 1, if Arsenal doesn't qualify for the group stage. One or more of Juventus, Manchester City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, FC Copenhagen, Napoli or Anderlecht might find themselves in a better pot as well, should some of the higher ranked teams fail to qualify.

 

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But first things first... The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds will take place on 24th of June.

 

There are four clubs in the first qualifying round:

 

THE SEEDED CLUBS:

EB/Streymur (Faroe Islands)
Tre Penne (San Marino)

 

THE UNSEEDED SLUBS:

Lusitanos (Andorra)
Shirak (Armenia)

 

There will be 34 clubs in the second round, including the winners from the first round:

 

THE SEEDED CLUBS:
BATE Borisov (Belarus)
Celtic (Scotland)
Steaua București (Romania)

Viktoria Plzeň (Czech Republic)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
Partizan (Serbia)
Legia Warsaw (Poland)
Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova)
Maribor (Slovenia)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)
Elfsborg (Sweden)
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
Molde (Norway)
HJK (Finland)

Ekranas (Lithuania)
Neftchi Baku (Azerbaijan)
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)

 

THE UNSEEDED SLUBS:
ŽeljezniÄar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
FH (Iceland)
Győr (Hungary)
The New Saints (Wales)
Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria)
Sligo Rovers (Republic of Ireland)
Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan)
Skënderbeu Korçë (Albania)
Birkirkara (Malta)
Cliftonville (Northern Ireland)
Vardar (Republic of Macedonia)
Daugava Daugavpils (Latvia)
Sutjeska Nikšić (Montenegro)
Nõmme Kalju (Estonia)
Fola Esch (Luxembourg)

 

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Feel free to talk about anything concerning next season's Champions League. I just put those teams up there as a conversation starter. I know we have people from various countries in Europe, so if we have fans of the smaller teams in the earlier stages, I'd love to hear from you. I'm not a huge fan of HJK, but in European competitions I always hope Finnish teams do well. They rarely do, although HJK did manage to get to the group stages in 1998/1999...

Will be rooting for Partizan Belgrade in the qualifying stages, though I don't expect them to get past the final qualifying round.

Benfica and Porto both in pot one is very surprising..

Actually I suppose not after Benfica got to EL final and QF of CL in the last two years

Well we could get Shaktar and Juve again but a group of death for any of the top seeds getting PSG, Atletico and Napoli would be a pretty tough group to come out of.

 

But since us and City tend to get the hardest groups in the draw could see it going something like:

 

Chelsea

Shakatar

Dortmund

Anderlecht

 

Bayern

PSG

Man City

Napoli

 

Man United

CSKA

Ajax

BATE ;)

Edited June 7, 201313 yr by axman2526

Well we could get Shaktar and Juve again but a group of death for any of the top seeds getting PSG, Atletico and Napoli would be a pretty tough group to come out of.

 

But since us and City tend to get the hardest groups in the draw could see it going something like:

 

Chelsea

Shakatar

Dortmund

Anderlecht

 

Man City

PSG

Juventus

Bayer

 

I don't think it is possible for Man City, PSG and Juventus to be in the same group.  2 of the 3 but not all of them.

Yeah I was thinking of them as a top seed so have corrected the first post.

Chelsea

Shakatar

Dortmund

Anderlecht

 

Bayern

PSG

Man City

Napoli

 

Man United

CSKA

Ajax

BATE ;)

 

Nice group for Man United!!

Chelsea

PSG

Dortmund

Napoli

 

My gut says it will happen. 

Chelsea

PSG

Dortmund

Napoli

My gut says it will happen.

That would be a solid group we would maybe end up in the Europa league again

Nice group for Man United!!

 

As per! 

That would be a solid group we would maybe end up in the Europa league again

 

Nah we have Jose back 

How about:

 

Chelsea

Athletico

Galatasaray

Napoli

 

That would be a few interesting games.  Would Courtois play or would he not be allowed if he is on loan? Drogba and Benitez for the other games.

The last four will be ..

 

Bayern, Chelsea, City and Real.

 

You heard it here first folks.

I'm thinking... Bayern, Barca, Dortmund and Juve

As per! 

What he said. Have to give them that sort of group cause sometimes even with it they still get knocked out ;P

If we get PSG, Juventus and Napoli, I think i'll kill myself.

Or Milan, Dortmund and Leverkusen.

The seeds really are f**ked up, how are Dortmund still so low after reaching the final last season, while Benfica are in the top seed for getting to the EL final, lol.

How about:

 

Chelsea

Athletico

Galatasaray

Napoli

 

That would be a few interesting games.  Would Courtois play or would he not be allowed if he is on loan? Drogba and Benitez for the other games.

 

Courtois would not be allowed to play in an official game against his home club.  I think we had to grant dispensation for him to UEFA so he could play against us in the Super Cup, which is basically a friendly.

 

I know that we will draw Napoli at some stage next year.

If we get PSG, Juventus and Napoli, I think i'll kill myself.

Or Milan, Dortmund and Leverkusen.

The seeds really are f**ked up, how are Dortmund still so low after reaching the final last season, while Benfica are in the top seed for getting to the EL final, lol.

 

Because Dortmund did jack sh*t in Europe until this season really, Benfica have been late in both the UCL and UEL over the last 5 five years consistantly.

The seeds really are f**ked up, how are Dortmund still so low after reaching the final last season, while Benfica are in the top seed for getting to the EL final, lol.

Like Habs said, it's not just how well you did last season, it's how well you've done during the last five seasons.

Like Habs said, it's not just how well you did last season, it's how well you've done during the last five seasons.

 

That doesn't mean it's not f**ked up ;)

UEFA should come up with a better seeding system that favours the national champions.

How the hell are Arsenal in the first pot when they won fark all since ages? Setting a rather arbitrary five year period does not make up for a fair system, now does it?

Edited June 8, 201313 yr by undertow

Porto in Pot 1, but Borussia who just played the final in Pot 3? 

It's a tough time in Europe at the moment as there is a slight shift in the paradigms of power.

Pot 3 is just as tough, if not tougher than pot 2.

There will definitely be more than one 'group of death'.

Madrid, PSG, Dortmund, Napoli would be the best group to watch in my opinion. Madrid would struggle and the new managers job would be on the line.

Porto in Pot 1, but Borussia who just played the final in Pot 3? 

 

Co efficient for seeding takes into account multiple seasons, not just the last one.

Co efficient for seeding takes into account multiple seasons, not just the last one.

 

I understand. That's what's wrong with UEFA and their friends at FIFA as well. England draws against Brazil, and gets less points than San Marino for beating Malta. It's a stupid system.