Pep Guardiola spent four years as manager of Barcelona, winning three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues, and will now return to his former club in his new role as City boss.
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Uefa, the body which runs the Champions League, now says Europa League winners will also be granted a direct route into the group stage – as was the case with winners Sevilla this season.
Holder and 11-time victor Real Madrid will have a tough pair of matches against Borussia Dortmund in Group F although both teams should progress from a section that also contains Sporting Lisbon and Legia Warsaw.
And the sides would find out who they would face in the group stages – during the draw, which was held in Monaco.
As such, it grants an extra place to Serie A (or whomever is within that top four at the time) and means that half of the group stage allocations are taken up by that block of 16.
The first matchday of the competition will take place on the 13/14 September with the final games in the four-team groups taking place on 6/7 December.
In Group A, Alex Iwobi’s Arsenal will come up against Ligue 1 champions, Paris Saint-Germain, FC Basel and Ludogorets as they participate in the Champions League for the 19th year in a row.
Ronaldo was yesterday named Europe best player by UEFA, for having guided Real to triumph for a record 11th time last season – and for having captained Portugal to unexpected success at Euro 2016. “This group won t be easy”.
“It’s hard but equally attractive”.
Group B: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas.
Claudio Ranieri once again conceded that his side Leicester City would be underdogs.
The pair also met in the semi-finals of the 2015/16 edition of the Champions League, with Atletico progressing on away goals and losing to Real Madrid in the final.
“We know very well that Russian Federation is always hard and CSKA are sure to have a very good team”, said Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Legia Warsaw completes the group, becoming Poland’s first team in the Champions League proper in 20 years.
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Now the top three leagues receive three guaranteed spots plus a chance for an additional team to qualify through playoffs – the fourth league has two guaranteed spots with an additional two teams qualifying through the playoffs.
