Mandatory Credit: Mitchell Gunn-USA TODAY Sports
After the results in many of Europe’s leagues wrapping up this past weekend, the pots for next season’s Champions League draws are coming together. They have not been fully decided because clubs such as Porto and Arsenal must still qualify for the group stages so their spots are still undecided. Thanks for the folks over at ESPNFC.com, they did the heavy lifting and put together the four potential Champions League pots and also explained what would happen if certain squads fail to qualify for the group stages.
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Chelsea FC is in Pot 1 as usual and are joined by some of the usual suspects in Spain, Germany, and Portugal. The pots do give us an idea of who Chelsea’s potential group stage opponents may be and outside of pot two, because we cannot play Liverpool, the field is not very strong. There are some potential giants in pot 4 however with the dangerous AS Roma and AS Monaco lurking there.
"CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW POTS* Team in playoffs. Should this team fail to qualify for the group stage the others below would move up a position. So for instance if FC Porto fail to qualify then Schalke would move into pot 1, and therefore Leverkusen into pot 2.Pot 1Real MadridBarcelonaBayern MunichChelseaBenficaAtletico MadridArsenal *FC Porto *———————-Pot 2SchalkeBorussia DortmundJuventusParis Saint-GermainShakhtar DonetskFC BaselZenit St Petersburg *Man City———————Pot 3Bayer Leverkusen *OlympiakosCSKA MoscowAjaxNapoli *LiverpoolSporting LisbonGalatasaray———————Pot 4 (outline)Athletic Bilbao *AnderlechtSalzburg *Lille *FC Copenhagen *AS RomaAS MonacoFrom ESPN.com"
The return of some old faces to the Champions League in Liverpool, Monaco, and Roma should make for an even more interesting tournament than usual. Hopefully Chelsea get some luck in the draw and end up with a relatively straightforward group so they can keep carrying the flag for the English coefficient.
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