August 25 – No prizes for guessing the most mouth-watering tie in the Champions League group stage, the draw for which was made on Thursday.
No sooner has he arrived at Manchester City than Pep Guardiola discovered he will face his old team Barcelona in arguably the toughest of the eight groups.
Guardiola twice steered Barca to Champions League glory before leaving at the end of the 2011-12 season and switching to Bayern. Now he takes his latest club to the Nou Camp on October 19.
City have been knocked out by the Catalan giants in the last 16 twice in the last four seasons but there is another reason Guardiola will be seeking revenge: Bayern were beaten by Barca in the 2014-15 semi-finals.
In six campaigns as a club coach, Guardiola has never failed to reach the semi-finals of Europe’s premier competition, an intriguing backdrop to the clash with Barca in a group that also contains Celtic and Borussia Moenchengladbach. To add extra spice to the City-Barca tie, Guardiola has just signed Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo from the Catalan giants. Barcelona’s director of professional sport Albert Soler told the club’s website: “We’ll give a warm welcome to Guardiola and Claudio Bravo, who will have the chance to say goodbye to the fans. It’ll be nice for them to be able to come back home.”
Bayern were given a quick chance to avenge last season’s semi-final defeat by Atletico Madrid after they were drawn together while surprise English Premier League winners Leicester City will face Porto, Club Bruges and Copenhagen. Elsewhere, holders and 11-times champions Real Madrid renew their recent rivalry with Borussia Dortmund.
Full group stage draw
Group A: Paris St-Germain (France), Arsenal (England), Basel (Switzerland), Ludogorets (Bulgaria).
Group B: Benfica (Portugal), Napoli (Italy), Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine), Besiktas (Turkey).
Group C: Barcelona (Spain), Manchester City (England), Borussia Monchengladbach (Germany), Celtic (Scotland).
Group D: Bayern Munich (Germany), Atletico Madrid (Spain), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Rostov (Russia).
Group E: CSKA Moscow (Russia), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Tottenham Hotspur (England), Monaco (France).
Group F: Real Madrid (Spain), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Legia Warsaw (Poland).
Group G: Leicester City (England), Porto (Portugal), Club Brugge (Belgium), FC Copenhagen (Denmark).
Group H: Juventus (Italy), Sevilla (Spain), Lyon (France), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).
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