Club secretary David Miles said: “This is our 19th consecutive season in the Champions League and of those 19 years we have qualified from the group stage 16 times”.
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The champions and runners-up of the fifth and sixth-ranked leagues, at present France and Russian Federation, will continue to have two places, while the champions of the seventh to 10th ranked leagues, now Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and Turkey, will also qualify automatically.
“Most of my life I spent there, I know the people, the club, the media, most of the players, the emotion is there”.
Begiristain hopes Guardiola’s tussles with Gladbach across three seasons as Bayern Munich boss will stand City in good stead although he concedes Celtic – under former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers – represent more of an unknown quantity.
While some may consider it rotten luck for the Scottish Premiership champions, others such as Carragher feel the draw is reward for Brendan Rodgers and his side making the group stages. “We now have an appealing group”, Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said. “It is a very hard competition to win – for everybody – and you need luck along the way, but we are ready and always trying to improve”.
There is a possibility that clubs from outwith the top four leagues in Europe may have to play an extra qualifying game. Ironically, France and Portugal, whose clubs eliminated the fourth-placed sides from Italy and Spain in this week’s play-off round, are likely to see their allocations cut under the new announcement.
Patrick Roberts WILL be allowed to play for Celtic against City in this season’s Champions League.
“It is very, very tough group with Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic – a big game again, no?”
Pep Guardiola is coming home to Barcelona in another tough group that will see Manchester City also taking on Gladbach and Celtic.
“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.
Juventus will take on three-time reigning European League champions Sevilla as well as Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb in Group H.
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Bayern Munich has been handed a chance at revenge against Atletico Madrid in Group D, which also has Dutch heavyweights PSV Eindhoven and Russian outfit Rostov.
