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Football London
Football London
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Phil Spencer & Rob Guest

Tottenham's best and worst case scenario as Champions League group stage draw beckons

Tottenham Hotspur will soon know who they face in this year's Champions League group stage.

Mauricio Pochettino's will find out their fate in the draw which takes place at 5pm on Thursday August 29 at 5pm UK time.

Spurs fans will be hoping to go one better than last season after they were defeated in the final against Liverpool in Madrid, but if they can't, I'm sure they'd take even an ounce of the excitement given to them lest term.

With that in mind, Football.London takes a look at the best and worst case scenarios for Spurs in the group stage draw.

Pot one

Liverpool

Chelsea

Barcelona

Bayern Munich

Paris Saint-Germain

Manchester City

Juventus

Zenit St Petersburg

Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham 'didn't play well' in Newcastle defeat

Manchester City are in pot one thanks to winning the Premier League.

Unfortunately for Tottenham, two English sides winning the Champions League - Liverpool - and Europa League - Chelsea - means they are also in pot one for the draw in August.

That means Spurs can only face five of the teams in pot one because teams from the same country cannot be drawn against one another in the group stages.

Pot two

Real Madrid

Atletico Madrid

Borussia Dortmund

Napoli

Shakhtar Donetsk

Tottenham

Ajax

Benfica

The Spurs team ahead of their Champions League semi-final vs Ajax (VI Images via Getty Images)

Tottenham will be in pot two for the draw, so cannot face any of the other teams in this pot.

That isn't necessarily bad news with the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Dortmund, Napoli and Ajax all among the eight teams.

Pot three

Lyon

Leverkusen

Red Bull Salzburg

Olympiakos

Club Brugge

Valencia

Inter Milan

Dinamo Zagreb

Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Valencia and Inter Milan are joined by Lyon, Olympiakos, Club Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb who all came through their play-off ties.

There are some big teams in this pot as well, meaning that Spurs will be undoubtedly face a big challenge.

Pot four

Lokomotiv Moscow

Red Star Belgrade

Genk

Galatasaray

Red Bull Leipzig

Slavia Prague

Atalanta

Lille

Spurs will no doubt fancy their chances against most sides in pot four, especially if they're hoping to progress.

However with sides such as Lille, RB Leipzig and Galatasaray there's always a chance of an upset.

A dejected Hugo Lloris walking past the Champions League trophy (Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)

Best case scenario

Obviously Zenit St Petersburg will be the ones that every team in pots two, three and four will want from pot one. The winners of the Russian League are nowhere near as daunting as the others, albeit it requiring a longer trip.

Paris Saint-Germain would probably be the second choice.

If Spurs were to get Zenit, they could not then draw Lokomotiv Moscow, so Olympiakos would be the best bet from pot three.

Then in pot four you're looking at Genk, Red Star Belgrade or Slavia Prague.

Zenit

Tottenham

Olympiakos or Krasnodar

Genk

Worst case scenario

Barcelona will be among the favourites and Spurs will not want to draw them from pot one, or Juventus for that matter.

Pot three's teams to avoid would appear to be Inter Milan, whom Spurs shared results with in the group stages in 2018/19, or Valencia or Lyon.

In pot four, Atalanta from Serie A or Red Bull Leipzig from the Bundesliga could be difficult opponents.

Barcelona

Tottenham

Inter Milan

Red Bull Leipzig

 
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