A: PSG, Real, Brugge, Galatasaray
B: Bayern, Tottenham, Olympiakos, Red Star
C: City, Shakhtar, Dinamo, Atalanta
D: Juve, Atletico, Leverkusen, Lokomotiv
E: Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk
F: Barca, Dortmund, Inter, Prague
G: Zenit, Benfica, Lyon, Leipzig
H: Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille

A, B and E seem clear.
In C, 2nd place is up for grabs behind city
D and F are stacked with strong nr3s.
G and H are weaker, but exciting

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

August 29 2019 17:00 GMT

#782

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

August 29 2019 17:01 GMT

#783

F= group of death
I was gonna shit on group G, but damn that looks so balanced on paper, could be quite interesting

TheNewEra

Germany3128 Posts

August 29 2019 17:05 GMT

#784

Leipzig in that Group lmao. I can totally see it happening again that they are only going to get 17k attendance and a half empty stadium.

Leverkusen and Dortmund got spicy groups. Going to be fun.

Bayern group looks mostly predecided. Unless Tottenham or Bayern really start to slump

LennX

4564 Posts

August 29 2019 17:08 GMT

#785

Citeh luck is OP and F is well... F

haitike

Spain2724 Posts

August 29 2019 17:10 GMT

#786

These are some hard groups for the Spanish clubs, specially group F.

PSG and Real Madrid in the samee group is uncommon. I think it only happened once before. (and what the hell is the City vs Shaktar three years in a row)

plasmidghost

Belgium16168 Posts

August 29 2019 19:25 GMT

#787

Damn, what an awful draw for Slavia Praha, I don't know if they can even get any points

Bacillus

Finland2020 Posts

August 29 2019 19:34 GMT

#788

On August 30 2019 02:10 haitike wrote:
These are some hard groups for the Spanish clubs, specially group F.

PSG and Real Madrid in the samee group is uncommon. I think it only happened once before. (and what the hell is the City vs Shaktar three years in a row)

Real has probably been in pot 1 most of the recent years. It's rare they're seeded with any of the usual league winners.

nojok

France15845 Posts

August 29 2019 20:16 GMT

#789

What happened in Frankfurt? I watched a handful of their games last season and I've yet to see them going full Ramos with retarded crowd on top of that, even when they took a set in 45 minutes against Bayer.

sharkie

Austria18590 Posts

August 29 2019 21:04 GMT

#790

sheesh Liverpool dominating European football awards

Twisted

Netherlands13554 Posts

August 30 2019 07:58 GMT

#791

On August 29 2019 20:46 Bacillus wrote:
It's a bit funny how Ajax had to go through the qualification rounds, but are now seeded in pot 2, above many very formiddable and directly qualified teams.

Yeah we have underperformed as a country the last 5 years. Ajax is responsible for almost 50% of our points, but in 2017/2018 they didn't qualify for Europe as well, due to qualifying matches happening adjacent to the Nouri catasthrophe. That was the year we lost to Rosenborg.

This year things are looking up though, 4 of our 5 clubs have reached the groupstage and we're nearing top 10 of the UEFA ranking, meaning we'll have at least 2 clubs in group stage.

Of course it is ridiculous that Ajax, semi-finalist of last year's edition, seeded in pot 2, had to go through qualifying, because our fellow Dutch clubs have been failing. More emphasis on individual performance would be great for clubs like Ajax and clubs like Basel, Celtic and Red Bull Salzburg.

Why should the winner of the Dutch league, semi-finalist CL and cup winner play qualifying matches, while Atalanta, Valencia etc. got 4th in their respective league miles behind the champion? It's ridiculous. Top 4 getting 4 group stage spots is mostly the reason.

Twisted

Netherlands13554 Posts

August 30 2019 08:09 GMT

#792

Also, it seems Ronaldo/Messi really have to win the triple (or at least the CL) to ever win a personal award again.

All respect for the Modriç's and van Dijk's of the world, but them winning over those 2 (and this year over Messi) is still a farce.

Bacillus

Finland2020 Posts

August 30 2019 09:06 GMT

#793

On August 30 2019 16:58 Twisted wrote:

Show nested quote +

Why should the winner of the Dutch league, semi-finalist CL and cup winner play qualifying matches, while Atalanta, Valencia etc. got 4th in their respective league miles behind the champion? It's ridiculous. Top 4 getting 4 group stage spots is mostly the reason.

It was quite awkward when some of the top teams went to qualifiers too though. For example Liverpool finished 4th on some season and had to crush poor Hoffenheim to get to the UCL. Meanwhile Hoffenheim got their possibly once-in-lifetime chance shut down because they drew bad in the qualifying round lottery at faced a team with 10x resources.

I don't like the current system, but there's a lot of awkward stuff in alternative solutions too. The whole thing probably could use some bigger rework.

Twisted

Netherlands13554 Posts

August 30 2019 09:31 GMT

#794

Some team is always gonna get the short stick obviously, but 4 teams for one country and potentially 5, is the problem. Why not max 2 or 3? That way there's more diversity and more money to teams where the CL-money actually makes a big impact. Manchester United doesn't give a fuck about the money they receive from CL prize money.

Right now they cater to the top teams. I think most people loved the fact that a 'small' team like Ajax made it to the semi-finals, but it's a rare occurrence with the way the CL is set up. But I'm probably preaching to the choir. The only one on this forum that probably loves the current setup is Pandemona

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

August 30 2019 09:38 GMT

#795

You are, the answer is incredibly simple. UEFA has the choice of having CL with too many top european teams or with most of them gone to the super league.
And of course there is no way to make people happy anyway. The fans are both whining about too many top teams and about how one group is shit because Zenit was one of the top draws. Don't really want to defend UEFA, but its not like there really is a winning situation to be had here

TheNewEra

Germany3128 Posts

August 30 2019 11:38 GMT

#796

The way Ashley Cole is pronouncing the team names during the EL draw is cracking me up. Like he never heard of these teams. Stade Renz. Or who doesn knowt RCD Espanya

sneirac

Germany3464 Posts

August 30 2019 13:14 GMT

#797

Feels like there are several very tough groups in there.

sharkie

Austria18590 Posts

August 30 2019 13:31 GMT

#798

Arsenal frankfurt wow!!!
That game will be CL Level

KobraKay

Portugal4254 Posts

August 30 2019 16:36 GMT

#799

On August 30 2019 18:31 Twisted wrote:
Some team is always gonna get the short stick obviously, but 4 teams for one country and potentially 5, is the problem. Why not max 2 or 3? That way there's more diversity and more money to teams where the CL-money actually makes a big impact. Manchester United doesn't give a fuck about the money they receive from CL prize money.

Right now they cater to the top teams. I think most people loved the fact that a 'small' team like Ajax made it to the semi-finals, but it's a rare occurrence with the way the CL is set up. But I'm probably preaching to the choir. The only one on this forum that probably loves the current setup is Pandemona

I like that it is top heavy and should be even more. I want to see the best play...not some walkovers (with all due respect to small leagues) over teams that would not even qualify for europa league in a league like ours.

Liquid`Drone

Norway28747 Posts

August 30 2019 17:07 GMT

#800

While I understand the perspective of wanting to watch the best play, the problem is that the top heavy is self-replicating. Rosenborg in the 90s took games from real madrid and dortmund and milan and other greats, and played draws and close, good games against pretty much everybody. But we only started doing that after having had a couple seasons of champions league experience (and money). This season we were the closest to qualifying that we've been since 2010 - but I'd have expected us to lose by 4+ goals every time if we played against City. Ajax somehow managed to have the stars align to almost get another CL final, but I really don't see them become as consistently good as they were during the 90s either, in the current football economy.

If CL is only available to the winner or top 2 of the top leagues then players who want to play CL will be more inclined to play for teams in other leagues, CL money gets spread out to more leagues because there are more leagues participating, and eventually you get a relocation of the top teams where they're less concentrated.