Yesterday, after the final qualifying stage matches, all 32 teams competing in the Champions League group stage became clear. Before the tournament draws at 19:00, Eurofootball.com decided to take a closer look at how this year's Champions League group stage participants have changed compared to last year.
Who will continue to play in the Champions League:
After last season, almost half of the teams in the Champions League changed - we will see 18 teams next season that competed in the group stage last year. In the group stage, we will again see four Spanish teams: "Real", "Barca", "Atletico", "Sevilla", which played last season as well. However, both last season and this season, due to Sevilla's triumph in the Europa League tournament, Spain had five representatives in the Champions League, but this year, one of them - "Villarreal", stumbled in the final qualifying round.
The composition of Germany in the Champions League has almost not changed - the teams "Bayern", "Bayer", and "Gladbach" return to the tournament after competing in the group stage last year. In the group stage, we will still see "Premier" League teams "Manchester City" and "Arsenal" steadily entering the top four, as well as France's ("Paris Saint-Germain", "Lyon") and Portugal's ("Benfica", "Porto") giants.
In the Champions League group stage, we will once again see "Juventus" dominating in Italy, "CSKA" playing steadily in Russia, PSV triumphing in the Netherlands, Ukrainian champions Kiev's "Dynamo", and Zagreb's "Dinamo" successfully overcoming the long qualifying rounds for the second year in a row.
Returning to the Champions League group stage battles:
This season, 12 teams return to the group stage battles after a break. Five of them ("Borussia", "Sporting", "Monaco", "Basel", Ludogorets") returned in the fastest way - skipping only a year without Champions League group stage matches.
"Copenhagen", "Celtic", and "Napoli" return to the Champions League group stage after a two-year break, while other teams needed a much longer break to return to this prestigious stage of the European tournament. "Tottenham Hotspur" made it to the Champions League after a five-year break, "Besiktas" needed six years, and "Brugge" did not play in the Champions League group stage for the past ten years.
However, the Polish champions "Legia" players waited the longest for their return to the Champions League group stage. They reached this stage after a 20-year break.
Newcomers:
This season, we will see two newcomers in the Champions League group stage. Both of these teams were the surprises of their leagues last season, despite being only in 14th place in their local championships a year before.
Undoubtedly, last season the most attention was drawn to Leicester City's brilliant journey, where they won the Premier League champions title and secured their place in the Champions League next year. Meanwhile, Rostov's journey in the Russian championship was similar, but with not such a happy ending. They couldn't match the pace demonstrated by CSKA and eventually remained in second place in their country's championship, which meant they had to fight from the third round of the Champions League qualifiers.
Rostov's successful journey this year in Europe was aided by successful draws, which allowed them to avoid potentially dangerous opponents and put on a successful performance in the second leg matches. Although both against Anderlecht and Ajax they were considered as the underdogs, after the first legs ending in draws, in both second legs, Rostov could confidently defeat their opponents and continue their fight in Europe.
For both teams, this will be their fourth attempt in Europe, and all previous attempts were unsuccessful. Leicester City defeated their opponents only once in four qualifying matches, which they did in their debut season in Europe in 1961-1962 when they beat the Northern Ireland club Glenavon. Rostov had beaten two opponents, but that was in now-defunct Intertoto Cup matches, where they defeated not the most famous clubs - FK Cementarnica from Macedonia and NK Varaždin from Croatia. Their only attempt in a higher-level tournament ended in failure against Trabzonspor from Turkey.
Teams that will not be in the Champions League group stage this year:
Out of the 14 teams that played in the group stage last year but did not make it this year, 5 broke through and are among the 16 strongest league clubs playing in the Champions League qualifying matches.
The team that went the furthest among them was Wolfsburg, who reached the quarterfinals but did not show successful results in the Bundesliga last year and ultimately remained in 8th place in the German championship, so they will not play in any European competitions this year. Among the other four teams, which all fell in the round of 16, Chelsea is also missing from Europe after finishing only tenth in the Premier League.
Roma competed in the Champions League qualifying matches, where they failed to defeat the Porto club and will play in the Europa League group stage matches, where the Zenit club will also play. These two clubs in the Europa League group stage may be joined by Gent, who are successfully continuing their fight in the Europa League qualifiers and can secure their place in the group stage today.
How the number of representatives from each country has changed in the Champions League group stage:
After last season, England and Germany retained their stable number of representatives in the Champions League (both have 4 representatives), as did Italy and Russia (both have 2 representatives) and the Netherlands, Turkey, Croatia, and Belgium's leagues (each has 1 representative).
Spain (was 5, now 4) and Ukraine (was 2, now 1) lost one representative each, while Portugal and France will have one more team (both had 2 representatives, now have 3).
The only country to lose its representative in the Champions League was Greece, Belarus, Israel, Sweden, and Kazakhstan, whose clubs we will not see in this year's group stage. Meanwhile, Scotland, Poland, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Switzerland can rejoice, as unlike last season, they will each have one representative in the Champions League group stage this year.
