That’s it for today’s blog. Please join us later for Wolves v Torino in the Europa League. Bye!
The Men’s Player of the Year is ... Virgil van Dijk. And quite right too.
They are going to announce the Men’s Player of the Year soon, one of these years. It’s between Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk.
Lucy Bronze is on international duty, so she accepts the award via a video message. She looks slightly surprised, although I doubt many others are. She has been majestic for the last couple of years in particular.
Lucy Bronze is the Women’s Player of the Year! Well, that’s made me very happy.
Updated
Read all about it
Any thoughts? That looks like an excellent draw for Liverpool, a decent one for City, and a tricky one for Spurs and Chelsea. Group F is the most eye-catchingly deadly, but Group D also looks very nasty.
The full draw
- Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
- Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.
- Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
- Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.
- Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
- Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.
- Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
- Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.
Updated
Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.
Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.
Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Praha.
Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moskva.
Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
The award for the best forward in last season’s Champions League is ... Lionel Messi , who again rose to the big occasion by scoring that priceless away goal at Anfield to put Barcelona into the final .
Updated
Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon
Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge
Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos
Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg
Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb
“I’m confused as to how they chose the teams for Pot 2,” says Dylan Singfield. “I get that they can’t play teams in the same league but why for example, were Real Madrid not able to be put in the same group as Liverpool? I was hoping for a rematch.”
You don’t want to go there, trust me. Once you’ve seen the 482-page tournament regulations, you can’t unsee it.
Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia
Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen
Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale
The award for the best midfielder in last season’s Champions League goes to ... Frenkie de Jong.
Juventus and Atletico Madrid will meet again, which is good news for Cristiano Ronaldo’s masculinity.
Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid
Group E Liverpool, Napoli (reprise)
Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk
Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid
Group G for gimme Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica
“Hi Rob!” says Joe Sampson. “If they were designing a way to rid the draw of as much intrigue and excitement as possible, I suspect that this is the format they would come up with. Enjoy your day!”
Oh, I’m enjoying my day all right.
Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund
I don’t think Chelsea have ever played Ajax before, although I’m probably wrong.
Group H Chelsea, Ajax
Bayern and Spurs last met in the 1983-84 Uefa Cup
Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur.
It’s time to draw the teams from Pot 2. “This is when the real excitement starts,” says A Suit.
Updated
Yes, yes, the award went to Virgil van Dijk.
The award for best defender in last season’s Champions League goes to ... Ashley Young.
The draw so far
- Group A Paris Saint-Germain
- Group B Bayern Munich
- Group C Manchester City
- Group D Juventus
- Group E Liverpool
- Group F Barcelona
- Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg
- Group H Chelsea
“Obviously, I hold you in the highest esteem, and so I assume you have some kind of sway over proceedings,” says Matt Dony. “Liverpool, Shakhtar, Zagreb and Genk, please, Rob. The Group of mild case of flu (famous last words…).”
I wouldn’t worry - I’ve already played this season on my pen and paper and you reach the final again.
GET ON WITH IT.
It’s time for the draw the individial awards for last season’s competition. And the goalkeeper of the season is Alisson Becker.
Updated
“Cantona winning something in Europe?” says Gary Naylor, aiming pointedly below the belt. “Novel...”
If I could only be bothered, I’d love to write an On Second Thoughts about his European performances for Manchester United. They were nowhere near as bad as the received wisdom suggests.
And with that, Cantona walked straight off the stage. Is there any point going ahead with the 2019-20 Champions League after that?
Here comes Eric, wearing a red shirt and a flat cap. He looks like he hasn’t shaved since 2003. This man is magnificent. And he’s about to throw some sardines into the sea via the medium of prepared speech:
“As flies to wanton boys, we are for the Gods. They kill us for the sport. Soon the science will not only be able to throw down the ageing of the cells; soon the science will fix the cells to the state, and so we’ll become eternal. Only accidents, crimes, wars will still kill us. But unfortunately, crimes and wars will multiply. I love football. Thank you.”
Updated
Eric Cantona is about to receive the Uefa President’s Award, belated recognition of his selfless attempt to kick xenophobia out of football in 1995.
“Group of Death?” sniffs Jason Straight. “City, Real, Lyon, Leipzig. How’s that look?”
I’d give that 7.7 on the GoD scale. The highest recording was 9.7 in the 1998-99 season: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Brondby, with only one team guaranteed to go through.
The preamble to the preamble to the main draw has begun. It would be good if, one year, they started drawing the balls straight away, 6pm CET sharp, catching half the assembled hacks on the hop, face down in a buffet plate.
For now we are watching a montage of last season’s ludicrously dramatic competition.
“Barcelona are looking for another striker, apparently,” says Charles Antaki. “They can manage a possible Group of Death if they snap up a well-known cricketer recently lauded for heroics, and use some of their muscle to lobby for a change in the UEFA relations to allow batting. And bowling.”
Oh, go on then. I think I’m addicted to this.
There’s plenty of scope for a Group of Death. Chelsea, Real Madrid, Internazionale and Lille, perhaps, or Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Lyon and Atalanta.
It’s 37 years since English teams won the European Cup in consecutive seasons. There’s a chance it could happen this year. Manchester City and Liverpool are, in the opinion of this hack, the two best teams in Europe. And while that guarantees the square root of bugger all, it beats being the 34th and 35th best teams in Europe.
The Champions League draw running order.
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) August 29, 2019
Disappointingly, it’s not just:
6.00pm - draw balls from hat
6.04pm - ends pic.twitter.com/Tbtcr32iCb
Preamble
Hello and welcome to a new series of everyone’s favourite TV feast, Champions League Draw. You know the drill: waffle, more waffle, a third course of waffle, and then that lot get the easiest possible draw again.
These are the four pots from which balls shall be extracted. As ever, teams from the same country cannot be pooled together.
Pot 1 Liverpool, Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg.
Pot 2 Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham, Ajax, Benfica.
Pot 3 Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Salzburg, Olympiakos, Club Brugge, Valencia, Internazionale, Dinamo Zagreb.
Pot 4 Lokomotiv Moscow, Genk, Galatasaray, RB Leipzig, Slavia Prague, Red Star Belgrade, Atalanta, Lille.
