If Lens, which has no UEFA points, will inherit strong opponents in the next Champions League, PSG, soon to be French champions, may also fall into a difficult group.
Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Juventus, Roma and even Ajax, a good handful of teams from the top 15 of the UEFA club rankings will be absent from the Champions League next autumn. This will make the upcoming edition a little more open, even if the group stage draw, which will not spare RC Lens (which has the minimum UEFA points), may well offer a difficult group At PSG.
Soon champions of France, the Parisians will be placed in the hat of the top seeds, with the two European cup winners and 5 other national champions. Roma or Sevilla (as Europa League winners), as well as Benfica and Feyenoord are 3 teams that Les Rouge et Bleu will not face. Inter will replace Feyenoord if they win the UCL final against Man City.
A high-flying hat 2
It is obviously the composition of hat 2 that interests Paris SG. Concern: there is very heavy, with the Real Madrid (which could have climbed into hat 1 in the event of a victory in C1), the Bayern if he loses the Bundesliga on Saturday, Manchester Unitedl’Interl’Atlético et Arsenal ! Only Leipzig and Porto would be quality opponents but much inferior to Kylian Mbappé and his teammates.
Projections of the group stage pots in @ChampionsLeague 2023/24 to date if the seeded players pass the preliminary rounds and the play-off then while waiting for the C1 final between Manchester City and Inter Milan (which would pass hat 1 in the event of a victory in C1) #UCL pic.twitter.com/HlEEpYwnj9
— Stats Foot (@Statsdufoot) May 22, 2023
Scarecrow Newcastle
Then Pot 3 offers a parade of national champions, those of Ukraine (Shakhtar), Austria (Salzburg), Croatia (Dinamo Zagreb), Scotland (Rangers) and Serbia ( Red Star Belgrade) as well as AC Milan and Lazio. It’s not nothing ! Last year, PSG avoided a national champion by pulling Benfica (2nd in the Portuguese championship in 2021-2022).
Finally, in the last hat (that of RC Lens and possibly OM if it passes the 3rd qualifying round then the play-offs), we still find Real Sociedad and especially the new very rich Newcastle. The Magpies are in an extremely positive dynamic and are perhaps already a better team than Chelsea and Tottenham. To avoid !
