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. North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur are set to face CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen and Monaco in Group E.
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9 – Either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo have finished as top scorer in each of the last nine seasons.
Reigning champions Real Madrid are in the same pool with former champs Dortmund and Sporting Lisbon of Portugal, plus Poland’s Legia Warsaw.
The final major change is in the way the money paid to clubs is calculated.
“We have good Champions League pedigree but of course recently we have met with Barcelona and Bayern Munich and unfortunately failed at that hurdle”.
He will lead City in Group C after the Premier League side overcame Steaua Bucharest 6-0 on aggregate in their play-off tie. At present they may have to take part in the play-off round.
“It will be tough, but we come into this competition to win games and we want so much to progress into the knockout stages”.
The Foxes’ last involvement in European football saw them knocked out of the Uefa Cup in the first round by Red Star Belgrade in 2000.
Pep Guardiola is excited about the prospect of returning to his former club Barcelona, though he acknowledges that Manchester City have their work cut out to advance from a testing Champions League group.
UEFA have also confirmed that the Europa League winners will now automatically qualify for the group stage of the Champions League the following season.
Juventus midfielder Sami Khedira said: “This is going to be very interesting”.
The Foxes will start as favourites to finish top of Group G after being paired with Porto, Belgium’s Club Brugge and FC Copenhagen of Denmark.
The first group games will take place on 15 September, with the group stage culminating on 16 December.
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Some have suggested the Blues have once again been given a “Group of Death” scenario – but he says everyone at the club is pleased, even though they recognise the difficulty of the task they face.
