The draw for the group stages of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League will take place this Thursday as fans wait with bated breath to find out who their team will be paired with in the first round of Europe’s premier footballing competition.
Barcelona endured a torrid run in the Champions League last season as they crashed out at the group stages itself, where they were drawn against Bayern Munich, SL Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv.
At one point it even looked like the Blaugrana might not even make it to the Champions League for this season. But a strong push in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign saw them finish second in La Liga and book a ticket to the competition.
Barcelona have been drawn in Pot 2, with Pot 1 being reserved for the champions of Europe’s top six leagues and the winners of last season’s Champions League and Europa League.
Of the eight teams in Pot 1, Barça will not be drawn against Real Madrid as teams from the same league are not paired up in the group stages. That leaves the Catalans with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, PSG, FC Porto, Eintracht Frankfurt and AFC Ajax as possible opponents.
Barça came across Bayern in the group stages last season while they also played Eintracht in the quarter-finals of the Europa League and came up short against the German outfit.
The Catalans will avoid heavyweights like Liverpool, Chelsea and Juventus in the group stages, as they are also in Pot 2 along with Xavi’s men.
As for their possible opponents from Pot 3, it could be anyone from Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Benfica, Sporting CP and Bayer Leverkusen.
A tie away at Signal Iduna Park can always be intimidating while both Inter and Napoli can be tricky opponents, although the Blaugrana did overcome the latter in the Europa League last season.
Moving on to Pot 4, five of the eight teams have been confirmed and could be drawn against Barcelona – Marseille, Club Brugge, Celtic, Viktoria Plzen and Maccabi Haifa.
The final three slots will be decided after the qualifying matches later tonight, with the winners of Dinamo Zagreb vs Bodo/Glimt, PSV vs Rangers and Trabzonspor vs FC Copenhagen set to enter the draw.
Read More - Memphis Depay receives touching message in farewell video recorded by his team
