2020/21 UEFA Champions League: The Road to Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

pedro1918

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Mar 5, 2004
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You can watch the group stage draw in the US on on UEFA.com, CBS Sports Network and CBS All Access at 11 a.m. ET. CBS Sports HQ will provide Champions League group stage draw coverage as part of its programming, with studio analysis before and after the groups are announced.

Pot 1
Bayern (GER, UEFA Champions League holders)
Sevilla (ESP, UEFA Europa League holders)
Real Madrid (ESP)
Liverpool (ENG)
Juventus (ITA)
Paris (FRA)
Zenit (RUS)
Porto (POR)

Pot 2
Barcelona (ESP) coefficient 128.000
Atlético de Madrid (ESP) 127.000
Manchester City (ENG) 116.000
Manchester United (ENG) 100.000
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) 85.000
Dortmund (GER) 85.000
Chelsea (ENG) 83.000
Ajax (NED) 69.500

Pot 3
Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)* 55.000
Salzburg (AUT)* 53.500
RB Leipzig (GER) 49.000
Internazionale Milano (ITA) 44.000
Olympiacos (GRE)* 43.000
Lazio (ITA) 41.000
Krasnodar (RUS)* 35.500
Atalanta (ITA) 33.500

Pot 4
Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS) 33.000
Marseille (FRA) 31.000
Club Brugge (BEL) 28.500
Borussia Mönchengladbach (GER) 26.000
İstanbul Başakşehir (TUR) 21.500
Midtjylland (DEN)* 14.500
Rennes (FRA) 14.000
Ferencváros (HUN)* 9.000

Important Dates:

OCTOBER
1 October: Group stage draw, RTS studios, Geneva, Switzerland

20/21 October: Group stage, Matchday 1
27/28 October: Group stage, Matchday 2

NOVEMBER
3/4 November: Group stage, Matchday 3
24/25 November: Group stage, Matchday 4

DECEMBER
1/2 December: Group stage, Matchday 5
8/9 December: Group stage, Matchday 6

14 December: Round of 16 draw, Nyon

FEBRUARY
16/17/23/24 February: Round of 16, first leg

MARCH
9/10/16/17 March: Round of 16, second leg

19 March: Quarter-final and semi-final draws, Nyon

APRIL
6/7 April: Quarter-finals, first leg
13/14 April: Quarter-finals, second leg
27/28 April: Semi-finals, first leg

MAY
4/5 May: Semi-finals, second leg
29 May: Final – Atatürk Olympic Stadium
 
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PedroSpecialK

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Dec 12, 2004
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I could have never in a million years foreseen City landing in Porto's group and having Olympiacos from pot 3...

Ajax and Atalanta so far for Liverpool. Not ideal, but could be worse.
 

pedro1918

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Map Ref. 41°N 93°W
So far:

Group A
Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid
FC Salzburg

Group B
Real Madrid
Shakhtar Donetsk
Inter Milan

Group C
FC Porto
Manchester City
Olympiakos

Group D
Liverpool
Ajax
Atalanta

Group E
Sevilla FC
Chelsea
Krasnodar

Group F
Zenit St Petersburg
Borussia Dortmund
Lazio

Group G
Juventus
Barcelona
Dynamo Kiev

Group H
Paris Saint-Germain
Manchester United
RB Leipzig





 

67YAZ

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I could have never in a million years foreseen City landing in Porto's group and having Olympiacos from pot 3...

Ajax and Atalanta so far for Liverpool. Not ideal, but could be worse.
Pool, Ajax, & Atalanta - those are 4 must see matches. They should be wild rides.
 

bosox4283

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Bayern is, of course, a brutal draw, but apart from Porto and Zenit, the match-ups would be very tough. Traveling to Russia is a pain in the ass, so I would have preferred a different team from Pot 4. Is Salzburg any good?
 

The Raccoon

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Both Dortmund and Lazio are higher ranked higher in Europe, right?
No, just Dortmund:
Zenit: 64 points
BVB: 85 points
Lazio: 41 points

Zenit has played very regularly in CL/EL during the last 5 years which puts them quite a bit ahead of Lazio. If not for their title in Russia, they would have slotted into one of the last positions in Pot 2.
But still, Zenit is the lowest rated team in Pot 1 (if you ignore Porto, it's a wide margin) so I'm absolutely happy with this drawing for my team (BVB).
 

Zososoxfan

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Groups B and H seem the most interesting to me. Agree entirely with @67YAZ that those Pool/Atalanta/Ajax matches will be the beautiful game on display. H looks incredibly competitive. Has a Pot 4 team ever made it out of the group stage?
 

pedro1918

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Map Ref. 41°N 93°W
Match Day 1 of the Group Stage starts today. All matches streaming on CBS All Access. All times are Eastern.

I do not have, nor do I particularly want to pay for, CBS All Access. Bummer.

Tue 20 Oct
12:55pm Dynamo Kyiv - Juventus
12:55pm Zenit St Petersburg - Club Brugge
3:00pm Barcelona - Ferencvárosi TC
3:00pm Chelsea - Sevilla
3:00pm Lazio - Borussia Dortmund
3:00pm Paris Saint-Germain - Manchester United
3:00pm RB Leipzig - Istanbul Basaksehir
3:00pm Rennes - FK Krasnodar
Wed 21 Oct
12:55pm FC Red Bull Salzburg - Lokomotiv Moscow
12:55pm Real Madrid - Shakhtar Donetsk
3:00pm Ajax - Liverpool
3:00pm FC Bayern München - Atlético de Madrid
3:00pm FC Midtjylland - Atalanta
3:00pm Internazionale - Borussia Mönchengladbach
3:00pm Manchester City - FC Porto
3:00pm Olympiakos - Marseille
 

Senator Donut

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CBS Sports Network is doing a Red Zone knockoff for the 3:00 matches if $5/month is outside your budget.

I’m amused by Dynamo’s response to the "Lucescu go away" banner, which was to position their mall cops directly in front of it.

 

wonderland

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Jul 20, 2005
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One of those things. Shot from distance (nobody stepped up). He dove, went off the post and off his back into the net.

He made a nice save a few minutes later to keep it tied. CB scored in the 93 to win it. So big three points.
 

bosox4283

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Dest, Horvath, and Pulisic all starting, with Reyna likely coming off the bench. Exciting day for US soccer!
 

cromulence

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Is the picture quality for CBS All Access really bad for everyone else? Connection seems fine, but it's just not a good enough picture to look decent on my TV.
 

teddykgb

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United with yet another soft penalty. Navas saves but is VAR ruled to have gone off the line so they get another shot.

It’s like the powers that be in world football watched the NFL make their sport unwatchable and said “sign us up for that”. If there’sanything everyone loves it’s lawyering in sport
 

wonderland

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Jul 20, 2005
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United with yet another soft penalty. Navas saves but is VAR ruled to have gone off the line so they get another shot.

It’s like the powers that be in world football watched the NFL make their sport unwatchable and said “sign us up for that”. If there’sanything everyone loves it’s lawyering in sport
Was Navas not way off his line? I have no problem with VAR in that case.
 

teddykgb

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Was Navas not way off his line? I have no problem with VAR in that case.
He was most certainly off his line.

My problem is as much with the rule application as anything. Any call which requires you to slow motion video and start saying “well technically that is the rule...” is a bad rule that inhibits my enjoyment. Freeze framing keeper feet is completely pointless and if they’re going to blow a whistle every time a player falls over in the box the least they could do is give keepers a minor chance
 

Kliq

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Leipzig vs Basaksehir is a fascinating matchup. If you think Leipzig is a questionable club, Basaksehir makes them look like Burnley.
 

Zososoxfan

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United with yet another soft penalty. Navas saves but is VAR ruled to have gone off the line so they get another shot.

It’s like the powers that be in world football watched the NFL make their sport unwatchable and said “sign us up for that”. If there’sanything everyone loves it’s lawyering in sport
I despise United as much as the next neutral and I thought it was soft at first too, but the replay made it look like a pretty clear pen IMO. I also don't mind the new PK rule enforcement since it's at least being applied consistently. Navas was pretty clearly off the line. Keepers are still adjusting to this and in a season or two I don't think we'll see nearly as many keeper infractions. I have a much bigger problem when a pen is retaken due to someone entering the box early, especially if they don't affect the play (make it like offside).
 

bosox4283

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Is Bayern clearly the best club right now? I feel like they are head and shoulders above everyone at the moment.
 

67YAZ

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Phew, Liverpool get away with a bad Adrian decision at the death as Ajax shoot clear over a open net. Hard earned 3 points and a nice relief to win one without injuries after this brutal stretch.
 

Kliq

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The thing with Bayern is that their usual continental rivals (Barca, Real, Atletico, Man City, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, even Juventus) all feel like they have trended downwards since earlier this year so their dominance stands out more. I'm excited, it could be really weird especially if crowds don't return; I thought it was great last year that we had a semi-final with Leipzig and Atalanta.
 

rguilmar

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Waiting for CBS All Access to get today's replays up, I decided to throw on the Rennes match from yesterday. Anyone seen this Camavinga kid play? Holy hell, there's not a club in the world who shouldn't be interested in that guy.
 

Kliq

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Waiting for CBS All Access to get today's replays up, I decided to throw on the Rennes match from yesterday. Anyone seen this Camavinga kid play? Holy hell, there's not a club in the world who shouldn't be interested in that guy.
Yeah I’ve heard from a few pundits that he is the best prospect in world soccer right now and I suspect he will only have one more season at Rennes, if that.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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Yeah I’ve heard from a few pundits that he is the best prospect in world soccer right now and I suspect he will only have one more season at Rennes, if that.
That seems a little over-the-top, at least in terms of best young players. Camavinga is extremely impressive for his age but its hard to be a truly dominant player as a non-goal scoring central midfielder and he has a lot of growth ahead of him before becoming a dominant player. In contrast, Haaland - who hasn't really played any more first team football in a real league than Camavinga - is not only a goal scoring player but might already be one of the five best center forwards in the world.
 
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Kliq

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That seems a little over-the-top. Camavinga is extremely impressive for his age but its hard to be a truly dominant player as a non-goal scoring central midfielder and he has a lot of growth ahead of him before becoming a dominant player. In contrast, Haaland - who hasn't really played any more first team football in a real league than Camavinga - is not only a goal scoring player but might already be one of the five best strikers in the world.
Not sure if I’d count Haaland as a prospect though, he’s more like Juan Soto. I don’t know nearly enough about global soccer prospects, just reporting what I’ve heard about Camavinga.