Chelsea vs Juventus, Barcelona vs Bayern As Champions League Draws Are Announced

• The UEFA Champions League group stage draw took place on Thursday, 26 August, in Istanbul, Turkey
• Defending champions Chelsea will begin their quest to defend the title against Juventus in Group H
• In all, 26 teams qualified automatically for the group stage, with the final six berths decided via the play-offs

Defending Champions Chelsea will begin their quest to retain the Champions League title with a mouthwatering clash against Juventus in Group H, Guardian reports.

The Blues will also take on Zenith St. Petersburg as well as Malmo, the most successful football team in Sweden in the preliminary stages.

UEFA organised the Champions League draws on Thursday evening, August 26, and there are exciting groups already.

Lionel Messi and his Paris Saint-Germain teammates will take on Premier League winners Manchester City in Group A clash together with Leipzig and Club Brugge.

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According to the rules, teams from the same country cannot be drawn together, and the draw was blatantly fixed to favour that lot.

In Group E, Barcelona were drawn alongside Bayern Munich and the Catalan giants will do everyting to prevent their 8-2 humiliation in the hands of the Bavarians last year.

Other teams in Group E are Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv.

Manchester United are drawn in Group F alongside Europa League champions Villarreal as well as Atalanta and Youngboys.

The draw in full via UEFA

Group A Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge.

Group B Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Porto, AC Milan.

Group C Sporting CP, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, Besiktas.

Group D Internazionale, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sheriff Tiraspol.

Group E Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Benfica, Dynamo Kyiv

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Group F Villarreal, Manchester United, Atalanta, Young Boys.

Group G Lille, Sevilla, Salzburg, Wolfsburg.

Group H Chelsea, Juventus, Zenit, Malmo.

How they were seeded?

As defending champions, Chelsea were seeded in Pot 1, alongside the league winners from England (Manchester City), Spain (Atlético Madrid), Germany (Bayern), Italy (Inter), France (Lille), and Portugal (Sporting CP), plus the Champions of Europa, Villarreal.

Thanks to some of the unexpected winners in certain countries last season, Pot 2 had a veritable murderers’ row of potential opponents, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG, and Juventus.

Ronaldo reportedly agrees to Manchester City's terms

In recent news, Briefly News recently reported that Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly agreed on personal teams with Premier League club Manchester City over a blockbuster return to England.

Reports have it that the striker’s agent Jorge Mendes was in Turin on Thursday to negotiate his client’s exit from Juventus as Ronaldo is heavily linked with City.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner hinted he could be on his way out of the Turin club, having requested to start Juventus' Serie A opener vs Udinese from the bench.

Source: Briefly News