The Champions League is back at Chelsea! The Premier League champions will find out their opponents in Thursday’s group stage draw.
Chelsea enter at the group stages after winning the Premier League title last season.
The Blues will be seeded in pot one of the draw, but that does not guarantee them an ‘easy’ group, with each pot particularly strong this year.
We look at how Chelsea’s potential groups could line up:
‘Worst’ possible group
- Chelsea
- Barcelona
- Napoli
- RB Leipzig
Or
- Chelsea
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Roma
- RB Leipzig
By being in pot one Chelsea are unable to be drawn alongside the likes of Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
Barcelona, along with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are all named in pot two, as are both Manchester clubs, but domestic teams cannot be drawn against each other at this stage of the competition.
Barcelona, although they may not be at their best at the moment, would still present a difficult task for Antonio Conte’s side.
Napoli themselves play some of the most exciting football in Europe and you can imagine Conte would want to make a good impression in a return to his home country.
The Bundesliga’s RB Leipzig enter in pot four and could upset the apple cart in this season’s competition. Backed by Red Bull, Leipzig will want to make an impression on the European stage after a strong first campaign in the Bundesliga.
They’ve managed to keep hold of their star names throughout the summer and will be a force again this season.
‘Easiest’ possible group:
- Chelsea
- Porto
- Besiktas
- Maribor
We use the word easiest very loosely, no game will be easy for Chelsea in the Champions League, even in the group stages.
Based on coefficient points, Porto, Besiktas and Maribor would be the easiest group for Conte’s men.
RB Leipzig enter pot four with the lowest coefficient points with it being their debut Champions League appearances, but it is unlikely their performances will reflect that, so we’ve placed Slovenian outfit Maribor, who Chelsea faced in the 2014/15 season, at the bottom of the pile.
Based on previous seasons, we think Chelsea’s group could look something like this:
- Chelsea
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Basel
- Maribor
This is not how UEFA pick their groups, we know that. However, Chelsea have been drawn against the above three sides in recent years, and it feels as if the Blues face Paris Saint-Germain every year, right?
