To Istanbul and beyond!
Let’s get things started with the seedings explained by the meticulous, marvellous Bert Kassies:
https://kassiesa.net/uefa/seedcl2020.html
The draw dates and match schedule are as follows:
Bring it on!
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Number 7 in the bag…
Hopefully
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Pot 1: Bayern, Sevilla, Real Madrid, LIVERPOOL, Juventus, PSG, Zenit, Porto
Pot 2: Barcelona, Atletico, Man City, Man United, Shakhtar, Dortmund, Chelsea, Ajax
Pot 3: RB Leipzig, Inter Milan, Lazio, Atalanta
Pot 4: Borussia Monchengladbach, Istanbul Basaksehir, Rennes
Pot 3 or 4: Lokomotiv Moscow, Marseille, Club Brugge
Yet to qualify:
Slavia Prague or Midtjylland/Young Boys
Maccabi Tel Aviv/Dynamo Brest or Salzburg
Olympiakos or Omonia/Red Star
Qarabag/Molde or Ferencvaros/Dinamo Zagreb
Krasnodar or PAOK
Gent or Dynamo Kyiv
If qualified, the bold ones should go to Pot 3 along with Lokomotiv.
Play-off round:
Champions Path
Slavia Prague v Midtjylland
Maccabi Tel Aviv v RB Salzburg
Olympiacos v Omonia
Molde v Ferencvaros
League Path
Krasnodar v PAOK
Gent v Dynamo Kyiv
Surprised that Red Star and Zagreb couldn’t make it.
Dinamo Zagreb so far are a shadow of the team they were last season (actually past two seasons) under the good manager who left after a dispute in the club earlier this summer. Also, some players like Dani Olmo, are difficult to replace immediately. So in terms of reputation, yeah, it’s a surprise, but in reality, at the moment their level has dropped on the pitch.
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What are the two “paths” all about? Why do they make it so complicated? 
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Or… why do they change almost every year?
Do they???
@Rambler Champions facing champions in the champion’s path to optimise number of champions in the Champions League.
I hate the whole concept of seeding in all these cup competitions. It is just there to protect the big boys and make sure UEFA get 2 big teams in the final…
It will never happen but I much preferred the old European Cup. Two legs…play anyone…and smaller sides get a chance to progress.
In the first round in 1979 we lost 4-2 to Dinamo Tbilisi and I notice they were playing Connahs Quay last night
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The draw for the group stage is on thursday.
The 5 subs rule will be used in the CL. Good for a team with lots of quality on the bench - like us.
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Are all the 32 clubs finalized or there’s some qualifying left???
Still some games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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(From theguardian:)
Pot one: Bayern, Sevilla, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Porto.
Pot two: Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea, Ajax.
Pot three: Dynamo Kyiv, RB Leipzig, Internazionale, Olympiakos, Lazio, Atalanta, and two more teams to be determined after Wednesday’s play-offs.
Other teams who have qualified: Lokomotiv Moscow, Marseille, Club Brugge, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Istanbul Basaksehir, Rennes, Ferencvaros.
Remaining play-offs (first-leg score in brackets): FC Midtjylland (0) v Slavia Prague (0); Red Bull Salzburg (2) v Maccabi Tel-Aviv (1); PAOK Salonika (1) v FK Krasnodar (2).
So we will get 1 from:
Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar Donetsk, Ajax.
Plus a likely tricky third seed.
Hopefully we can avoid the Spanish and Italian teams and get some nice H and A dates vis a vis our league matches.
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If there were fans in the stadiums I would have preferred a high profile group. We tend to step up our game against bigger rivals too.
But given the context, I’m happy to have Champions League.
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Love playing against clubs/teams who we haven’t played in ages. Hate it when we get a Napoli or Porto two years in a row. So boring.
It’s been almost half a century since we played Ajax, wouldn’t mind that. Also Inter, purely from a selfish point of view, I don’t like them in last years.
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those italian sides in the third pot could be tricky, same with leipzig
Easier teams please. Need to focus on the league and get through the group stages. The tough ones and proper European games and come later.
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Would be happy if we don’t draw clubs with long distance travel.
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