Champions League '18-'19 Group Draw

[Manneken Pis]

Obviously not finalised as there are still a few who need to qualify, but here are the provisional "pots" from the UEFA website. By my reckoning as there's still one open spot in Pot 2, and three in Pot 3 and three teams with higher coefficients than us still to be placed we can't go down to Pot 4.:

Pot 1
Real Madrid (holders)
Atlético Madrid (UEFA Europa League winners)
Barcelona
Bayern München
Manchester City
Juventus
Paris Saint-Germain
Lokomotiv Moskva

Pot 2
Borussia Dortmund 89.000
Porto 86.000
Manchester United 82.000
Shakhtar Donetsk 81.000
Napoli 78.000
Tottenham Hotspur 67.000
Roma 64.000

Pot 3
Schalke 62.000
Lyon 59.500
Monaco 57.000
Ajax 53.500
CSKA Moskva 45.000

Pot 4
Club Brugge 29.500
Galatasaray 29.500
Young Boys 20.500
Internazionale Milano 16.000
Hoffenheim 14.285
AEK Athens 10.000

TBD
Liverpool 62.000
Valencia 36.000
Viktoria Plzeň 33.000

3 more play-off winners:
Crvena zvezda 10.750 or Salzburg 55.500
BATE Borisov 20.500 or PSV Eindhoven 36.000
Benfica 80.000 or PAOK 29.500

[Orange14]

Need a win by Benfica today so that Liverpool will drop down to Pot 3. Best possible draw for Ajax would be:
Pot 1 - Lokamotiv Moscow
Pot 2 - Porto, Benfica (if they make it), or Roma (to get revenge on Justinho)
Pot 4 - any team other than Internatzionale

Given past draws, I expect Ajax will end up in a Group with Real Madrid, Mancester United, and Internazionale

[souras84]

But if Benfica fail to qualify, we will earn 1.080.000 million euros more. We will ascend 1 place in the UEFA market pool

[elliquido]

But if Benfica fail to qualify, we will earn 1.080.000 million euros more. We will ascend 1 place in the UEFA market pool

Go PAOK !!!!

[kezme44]

But if Benfica fail to qualify, we will earn 1.080.000 million euros more. We will ascend 1 place in the UEFA market pool

i'd rather see psv fail so we get all the tv money :)

in pot 4, i'd like us to avoid hoffenheim. they are a very good team with a very good coach. as for pot 2, not rating dortmund, porto, donetsk, napoli and rome all that high. that are all beatable. it's a joke that lokomotiv is in pot 1.

[Orange14]

Maybe Lokamotiv is in Pot 1 because they are Russian champions. I couldn't find their UEFA club coefficient.

[kezme44]

i think you are right. their coefficient cannot be anywhere near ours, so it's probably because russia did well a few years ago with zenit, zska, so they secured a pot 1.

[Cruijff]

Maybe Lokamotiv is in Pot 1 because they are Russian champions. I couldn't find their UEFA club coefficient.

i think you are right. their coefficient cannot be anywhere near ours, so it's probably because russia did well a few years ago with zenit, zska, so they secured a pot 1.

That is correct.
Since a few years the league winners of the top 7 or top 8 of the countries in coefficient ranking are in Pot 1.

That's why there is only one English team in Pot 1 but also the Liverpool coefficient is despite an EL final in 2016 and CL final in 2018 not extreme high.
But it still seems that Spain has 3 teams in Pot 1 with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid so I don't know which paragraph the UEFA added to their rules?

[Amol]

But it still seems that Spain has 3 teams in Pot 1 with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid so I don't know which paragraph the UEFA added to their rules?

The CL, EL winners and the Spanish champions are in Pot 1 - Real and Athletico and Barcelona

[souras84]

Everybody wants to face a Russian team, Lokomotiv this year. Have we ever knocked out a Russian team? I'd prefer a super good first team, cause if we want a chance to go through, we need the team from the 1st pot to win against both 2

[Orange14]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

[Orange14]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

The 2011 defeat took place during de Boer's first year as trainer when Martin Jol resigned in December following a weak start to the Eredivisie campaign. Interestingly, it was this same season that Ajax defeated Dynamo Kiev to qualify for the Champions League. They took third place in a group that included Milan, Madrid and Auxerre. Prior to the meeting with Spartak, Ajax handily defeated Anderlecht.

[Cruijff]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

The 2011 defeat took place during de Boer's first year as trainer when Martin Jol resigned in December following a weak start to the Eredivisie campaign. Interestingly, it was this same season that Ajax defeated Dynamo Kiev to qualify for the Champions League. They took third place in a group that included Milan, Madrid and Auxerre. Prior to the meeting with Spartak, Ajax handily defeated Anderlecht.

In 1998 it was indeed disappointing with Morten Olsen that Spartak Moscow eliminated us. Even when we had a very weak Eredivisie season in 1996/1997 Ajax still managed to reach the semi finals of the Champions League. But a year later in UEFA Cup Ajax got beaten fast.

In 2011 Ajax had strong results against Anderlecht (0-3 win away, 2-0 at home), but in Moscow a lot of things went wrong. With Maarten Stekelenburg and Kenneth Vermeer both injured, De Boer had to bring in 3th goalie Jeroen Verhoeven. I remember a Brazilian tv program making fun of us, they couldn't stop laughing when showing moments of the very athletic Verhoeven in the goal at Ajax in an official match.

[kezme44]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

we also lost against rostov a few years ago. i believe it was a 1-1 and a 4-1 loss

[Cruijff]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

we also lost against rostov a few years ago. i believe it was a 1-1 and a 4-1 loss

Yes.
It was pretty much with the same selection as Peter Bosz reached the Europa League final it.

Although it was with bad defending of Jasper Cillessen, Riedewald, Veltman. Also Gudelj was still on the pitch every game at that time and Ziyech not yet there.

[Orange14]

Only results I could find were Europa League ties against Spartak Moscow. Lost both matches in 1998 and 2011. Scored only one goal and conceded eight.

we also lost against rostov a few years ago. i believe it was a 1-1 and a 4-1 loss

That was a CL qualifier if I remember. I just did a Google search for the original post and it only came up with EL matches.

[Cruijff]

That was a CL qualifier if I remember. I just did a Google search for the original post and it only came up with EL matches.

Yes that defeat and elimination was the reason Ajax had to play Europa League in the season that Ajax reached the final of the Europa League.

[kezme44]

we need to be in group D

[kezme44]

bayern and benfica. benfica is beatable. let's see what we get from pot 4

[SPL]

Happy with Benfica ,them and Porto the weakest in Pot 2. Lets just avoid Inter though and maybe Galatasary.

[SPL]

AEK Athens . Good draw Benfica and AEK are good sides but amongst the weakest in pots 2 and 4.

With 2 to go it was AEK or Inter great relief . We should be confident of aiming for 2nd place.

[Ayman]

Ajax dodged a massive bullet! The final draw was between AEK Athens and Inter Milan. Ajax got AEK Athens. And PSV Eindhoven got Inter! They are in the group of death!

[zeux]

Ajax dodged a massive bullet! The final draw was between AEK Athens and Inter Milan. Ajax got AEK Athens. And PSV Eindhoven got Inter! They are in the group of death!

Wasn't a scare, as the 'blue side' of the draw had already two Italian clubs. Because of television schedules they make sure that no more than two clubs from one country (if there are 3 or more) play on the same night.

[kezme44]

great draw. with a bit of luck, we should be able to get the 2nd group spot

[Orange14]

Finally a decent draw in the CL. I remember some years ago Ruud Gullit was doing the draws and Ajax got shafted. Pity for PSV drawing a tough group as that won't help the country coefficient unless they pull off some surprises. We will see what kind of trainer van Bommel is.

I haven't seen Bayern play this year but they have a new trainer, some old and some disgruntled players. Remember the old saying, '...on any given night (Sunday in the movie)...' There are lots of YouTube clips of Al Pacino's halftime speech from the movie 'Any Given Sunday'