Worst potential Champions League draw consists of Aston Villa’s Bellingham nightmare
The Champions League is set to return next month, with English interests represented by Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester City.
The four Premier League sides will feature in a revamped edition of Europe’s elite club competition, with the group stage now a thing of the past. Instead, the quartet, alongside 32 other teams, will play in a league table which has replaced the group stages.
The 36 teams are divided into four different pots of nine. All teams will play eight games instead of six this season, and will face off against two teams from each pot.
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No team from the same country can face each other until the knockout stages, and no team can face more than two other sides from a different country.
Last season saw Newcastle United handed a spot in the group of death in the Champions League, with Eddie Howe’s Magpies pitted against PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.
How do you reckon Aston Villa will fare in the Champions League this season? Let us know in the comments section
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
And while Aston Villa, who managed an impressive fourth placed finish in the Premier League last term, won’t have to face a group of death, they may be handed a horrible set of fixtures thanks to the new draw format.
Aston Villa are seeded in Pot 4, alongside AS Monaco, Bologna, Brest, Girona, Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Praga, Strum Graz and VfB Stuttgart. They will take on two of those teams, as well as two teams from the other three pots.
However, with the new format seeing teams play four games at home and four games away, Villa could be handed a brutal set of away fixtures during their Champions League campaign.
(Image: UEFA via Getty Images)
In what would probably be the worst case scenario for some Villa supporters, there is a universe in which they could have to face off against Pot 1 and Pot 2 opposition for their four away games.
And in that scenario, they would have to take on defending champions Real Madrid at the Bernabeu which could see them face ex-Birmingham City midfielder Jude Bellingham.
In the nightmare worst case universe, Villa would also play away from home at the Allianz Arena against Bayern Munich, who would serve as their other Pot 1 opponent, whilst in Pot 2, they could be handed trips to take on Bayer Leverkusen or Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid.
And their home games might not be much better, with clashes against Celtic, PSV Eindhoven, AS Monaco and Bologna.
It should be stressed that this would seem highly unlikely. But it is a possibility. Here are how the Champions League has been seeded this year…
Pot 1: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, RB Leipzig
Pot 2: AC Milan, Arsenal, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Club Brugge, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk
Pot 3: Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Feyenoord, FC Salzburg, Lille, PSV Eindhoven, Red Star Belgrade, Sporting CP, Young Boys
Pot 4: AS Monaco, Aston Villa, Bologna, Brest, Girona, Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Praga, Strum Graz, VfB Stuttgart
