Barcelona got a favourable start to it’s title defence, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s wish to go home was granted and Benfica has been given the longest trip in Champions League history as the draw for the group stage was announced last night in Monaco.
The group-stage draw also means Bayern Munich play Arsenal for the third time in four seasons and sent Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho back to Porto where he won his first Champions League title.
Manchester United’s return after a one-year absence will be at Group B’s top-seeded club whose best player it bought in the offseason. United’s new No. 7 Memphis Depay can look forward to a September 15 date back at PSV Eindhoven.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo resume their duel for the all-time competition scoring a record of 77 career goals each, and Barcelona’s star forward seems favored to forge ahead.
Defending champion Barcelona will kick off at Roma and also play BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen.
Ronaldo and Real Madrid landed in a tougher group with Shakhtar Donetsk and Ibrahimovic’s current and first clubs, Paris Saint-Germain and Malmo.
On the same day, Portugal champion Benfica will play at newcomer Astana.
The group is completed by Galatasaray and Atletico Madrid, whose match in Astana will be at 4 p.m.
Europe’s four highest-ranked leagues meet in the group of Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla and Borussia Moenchengladbach.
His quest to be the first coach to win Europe’s premier club title with three different clubs after Porto and Inter Milan in 2010 starts in a group with Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Though Man United landed with the lowest-ranked top-seeded club in PSV, the group has depth with CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg.
Bayern eliminated Arsenal at the last-16 stage in 2013 and 2014, though the English club will expect to advance ahead of Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb.
With UEFA separating Russian and Ukrainian teams in the draw, top-seeded Zenit St. Petersburg was grouped with Valencia, Lyon and Gent. The champion of Belgium is the second club making its debut at the elite level.
The six rounds of group matches end on December 9. The top two in each group advance to the last-16 knockout round which begins in February.