The Europa League winners will also be guaranteed a place in the group stages.
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UEFA announced at a press conference on Friday that Europe’s leading leagues in their co-efficient rankings – now the Premier League, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A – will all have automatic qualification for top-four finishers.
An announcement on the matter is expected from European football’s governing body on Friday, with a series of meetings having taken place on Thursday after several months of UEFA consultations with stakeholders.
These changes come to perhaps slow down the talks of an “European Super League”.
Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic round out a tough section, meaning there is a possibility of Kolo Toure facing his brother Yaya when the Scottish champions take on City.
And with three goals to his name so far, he is feeling good about his return to Manchester after Celtic were paired with City, Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach. The draw has brought us trips to Spain, France and Croatia.
City also played Monchengladbach in the group stage previous year, en route to the last four. Just a day after Champions League teams found out about their opponents, Manchester United, Southampton and 46 more football clubs finally discovered who they face in Europe.
Celtic reached the group stage via a tortuous qualifying route involving ties against Lincoln Red Imps, Astana and Hapoel Be’er Sheva. “We now have an appealing group”, Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said. But who will face who in the draw?
A subsidiary company, the UEFA Club Competitions SA, is to be created to manage UEFA‘s club competitions.
“What we can say now is that, after lobbying hard for the retention of the Champions route for Champions League qualification, the SPFL is therefore pleased that the Champions route has been protected as part of these changes”.
For the third season running Serie A has only two teams in the group stage, and the other side, Napoli, will meet Benfica, Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev in Group B.
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People connected with clubs such as AC Milan, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and several Premier League clubs have all discussed the idea of leaving UEFA for monetary purposes.
