August will soon turn into September which means that the biggest Football leagues of Europe will start. One of them is the prestigious Champions League tournament. Last season Real Madrid defeated local rivals Atletico in the final and thus became the champions. This year we find Ronaldo and Real in Group F where they are drawn against Dortmund, Sporting Lissabon and Legia Warszawa. In this post you find the drawn groups and schedule for the group phase as well as dates for the play offs matches. The two best placed teams in each group advances to the playoffs.
Groups:
Group A:
Paris Saint-Germain
Arsenal
FC Basel
Ludogorets
Comment: PSG (without Zlatan Ibrahimovic who went to Manchester United) and Arsenal should be on top in this group.
Group B:
Benfica
Napoli
Dynamo Kiev
Besiktas
Comment: A tough group to predict, but chances are the Italian teams (Benfica, Napoli) will have a good chance to advance.
Group C:
Barcelona FC
Manchester City
Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Celtic
Comment: Barcelona and Manchester City are the two strongest teams of group C.
Group D:
Bayern Munich
Atlético Madrid
PSV Eindhoven
FC Rostov
Comment: Another group with two favourites: Bayern and 2016 finalist, Atletico (who actually met in the semifinals last season).
Group E:
CSKA Moskva
Bayer Leverkusen
Tottenham
Monaco
Comment: Group E is hard to predict. Maybe it is Tottenham’s turn to go far in the Champions League this year?
Group F:
Real Madrid
Dortmund
Sporting Lissabon
Legia Warszawa
Comment: 2016 Champions League winners Real Madrid will win this group. But who do they take with them to the play offs?
Group G:
Leicester City
Porto
Club Brügge
FC Copenhagen
Comment: An interesting group. It will be interesting to see how the 2016 Premier League winner Leicester will fare against European competition. In Sweden we hope that the only Scandinavian team (Copenhagen) will have some success in the tournament.
Group H:
Juventus
Sevilla
Lyon
Dinamo Zagreb
Comment: “The old lady” Juventus should be able to advance from group H. Maybe together with Spanish Sevilla.
Schedule, Champions League 2016-2017
Group stage:
13–14 September: match 1.
27–28 September: match 2.
18–19 October: match 3.
1–2 November: match 4.
22–23 November: match 5.
6–7 December: match 6.
Play offs:
14–15 February: Round of 16, match 1.
7–8 March: Round of 16, match 2.
11–12 April: Quarter final, match 1.
18–19 April: Quarter final, match 2.
2–3 May: Semi final, match 1.
9–10 May: Semi final, match 2.
3 june: Final in Cardiff.
