The draw for the new Champions League format was made on Thursday, and the computer responsible for determining the eight opponents for each of the 36 clubs involved was not kind to PSG. The capital club will face Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, PSV Eindhoven and Girona at home, as well as Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Salzburg and Stuttgart away. Quite a schedule!
Accustomed to difficult draws, like last year when it inherited Dortmund, AC Milan and Newcastle in its group, is Paris Saint-Germain really to be pitied compared to its competitors in this “new look” C1?
Opta analyzed the fate reserved for all the participants and, clearly, Luis Enrique’s players can blame chance for having placed them on the road of these eight opponents.
PSG and Lille injured, Bayern and Barça spared
To determine the complexity rate of the 36 clubs draw,
Opta gave each team a score (from 0 to 100), before calculating the average score of their future opponents. And PSG is the team that had the most difficult draw, with an average score of 92.4 for the clubs it will face. Lille, who will notably face Liverpool, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Juventus, comes in fifth place.
Among the teams that were most spared by Cristiano Ronaldo, who was in charge of activating the computer during the Champions League draw, are Celtic Glasgow, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, FC Barcelona and Aston Villa. While big shocks await these teams, the average level of their opponents is rather around a rating of 87 to 88, established by Opta.
It remains to be seen whether this will be confirmed on the ground.
