Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool are through to the Champions League quarterfinals after eliminating Barcelona and RB Leipzig, respectively, on Wednesday night. They will join Porto and Borussia Dortmund, who punched their tickets for the next round the day before.

PSG hosted Barcelona at their Parc des Princes stadium after beating the La Liga side 4-1 in the 1st leg. While the French club were overwhelming favorites to advance, nothing was certain considering that Barca overturned 0-4 against them back in 2017.

Barca was the better side to start the game, creating several good chances, but PSG scored first. Mauro Icardi was taken down in the penalty area, and Kylian Mbappe coolly converted the kick to give his team a 1-0 lead.

The Catalan club didn’t take long to respond, with Leo Messi delivering a stunning goal to make the score 1-1 in the 37th minute.

The second half didn’t offer the excitement everyone hoped for, as the two sides remained scoreless. Barcelona attempted to make it interesting, but Paris defended well and managed to keep their sheet clean for the rest of the game.

The match between Liverpool and RB Leipzig offered a thrilling showdown as well, even though the home side had a 2-0 advantage. The Reds were going through a full-blown crisis, having lost six out of their seven last Premier League games, and Leipzig’s high-octane attack gave the Germans a feeling that they could turn things around.

Once the game kicked off, however, it was Liverpool who was dominating the game. The English club had better chances in the first half, while Leipzig struggled with creativity.

The sides were scoreless until the 70th minute when Mohammed Salah’s well-placed shot from the top of the key ended behind Peter Gulacsi. Several minutes later, Sadio Mane made it 2-0 thanks to a great cross from Divock Origi.

The UEFA Champions League resumes next week with the remaining 2nd leg matches of Round of 16.

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The 2021 Champions League draw for the Round of 16 took place on Monday in Nyon, Switzerland, and produced a set of matchups that will provide plenty of intrigue when the competition picks back up in March.

The matchups for the upcoming games are as follows:

• Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Manchester City
• Lazio vs. Bayern Munich
• Atletico Madrid vs. Chelsea
• RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool
• Porto vs. Juventus
• Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain
• Sevilla vs. Borussia Dortmund
• Atalanta vs. Real Madrid

All eight matchups will take place over two ties, with the second-place group stage teams (listed first) hosting the first match, and the first-place teams (listed second) hosting the second and decisive match.

There is plenty of intrigue to be found in the matchups which have been drawn, including a blockbuster matchup pitting FC Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain.

Other fascinating matchups include upstarts RB Leipzig vs. the 2019 champions of Liverpool, Atletico Madrid taking on Chelsea, and last year’s Cinderella in Atalanta facing the best team in the competition’s history, Real Madrid.

The first legs of the matchups are set to be held in mid to late February, while the second legs will be held in early to mid March.

The world’s best competition looks to be set to provide fans with a buffet of matchups that should be fascinating once again.

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Despite going into the final match of the group stage with their hopes for the knockout round still undecided, Real Madrid won a crucial 2-0 game against Borussia Monchengladbach to move to first place and advance to the next stage.

It was a complicated group stage for Los Blancos, who lost twice to Shakhtar Donetsk and had drawn their previous matchup against their German foes despite having beaten Inter Milan twice.

Zinedine Zidane’s squad came through at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium on a chilly Wednesday night in Madrid when it counted the most, however, relying on two Karim Benzema goals to claim their spot in the knockout stage.

Benzema’s first goal happened thanks to a picture-perfect cross from Lucas Vazquez in the 9th minute of the game, which he calmly headed past Yann Sommer.

Madrid’s lead was doubled just over 20 minutes later after Benzema scored a very similar goal, following a Rodrygo Goes cross kick.

This was all Real Madrid needed to win and advance to the knockout stage as they have done every single time they have participated in the Champions League.

Real Madrid, the group winner, will await until Monday’s draw to find out their knockout stage opponent. Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach, who qualified as the group’s second place finisher, will hope to avoid any of the biggest teams in their draw.

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Things are beginning to look dire for Real Madrid’s Champions League hopes, after another loss against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night.

Zinedine Zidane, who coaches Real Madrid, also lost on Saturday against Alaves, making this new loss sting even harder.

Real Madrid kept themselves even with Shakhtar Donetsk in the first half, and even had a great scoring oppurtunity when Martin Odegaard set up Marco Asensio for a possible goal. But after not converting, the teams went to the locker rooms knotted at 0.

After the second half whistle blew, however, Shakhtar began to find its feet, and a fatal Dentinho strike in the 57th minute gave them the lead.

Real Madrid was unable to generate many scoring chances after going down 1-0. With eight minutes left to go, a Manor Solomon goal put the Ukranians up 2-0.

Los Blancos, now 3rd place in Group B with 7 points, must now hope for at least a point in their visit to Borussia Monchengladbach in order to finish the group stage successfully.

A win would propel them into the knockout round, a draw would mean they would depend on Inter Milan defeating Shakhtar, and a loss would send them crashing out of the Champions League. Only time will tell how this dog fight will end.

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FC Barcelona continued its winning ways in the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League on Tuesday night, dispatching Dynamo Kiev on the road by a 0-4 final.

The Blaugrana rebounded from a weekend defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid to continue their perfect run in the group stage.

It was a nervy first half for Barça, as they failed to break through Dynamo Kiev’s defense and they went into the half with a 0-0 draw.

However, star summer-signing Sergino Dest made history by scoring his first goal for FC Barcelona in the 52nd minute, a score that opened up the floodgates.

The American full-back’s goal was followed by two scores by Martin Braithwaite and a stoppage-time goal by Antoine Griezmann which led to a four-goal, comfortable victory.

Interestingly, the match also saw Konrad De La Fuente debut for Bracelona, meaning that two Americans were on the pitch at the same time in a Champions League match for the first time since 2004.

The Miami-born De La Fuente entered in the 83rd minute for Trincao and made his FC Barcelona debut at the ripe age of 19.

Barcelona has already qualified for the knockout round of the Champions League and will now turn its attention to getting on track in La Liga with a home match versus Osasuna on Sunday.

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Real Madrid, who needed a big victory in a crucial group stage Champions League clash on Tuesday in order to stay in the hunt for knockout stage qualification, came back to beat Inter Milan dramatically and do just that.

Los Blancos, which had lost their UCL opener at home to Shakhtar Donetsk and then drawn at Borussia Monchengladbach, faced arguably their toughest opponent in Group B and stepped up their game.

Real Madrid got off to a hot start after Karim Benzema scored a breakaway goal in the 25th minute of the match to give his team a 1-0 lead. Just eight minutes later, Sergio Ramos headed in a corner kick to double his team’s lead and put Real Madrid fans at ease.

However, just a minute and a half later, Lautaro Martinez beat Thibault Courtois with a close-range strike to halve Real Madrid’s lead. Things started to look even worse for Los Blancos after Ivan Perisic scored after the half in the 68th minute.

Things weren’t over for Real Madrid, however, who scored again after a beautiful connection between Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo Goes resulted in the game-winning score.

This victory propels Real Madrid to 4 points and a tie with Shakhtar Donetsk in second place in the group. Inter is now bottom with only 2 points.

Real Madrid and Inter Milan will face off again, this time at the San Siro, on November 25th in yet another crucial matchup that Inter Milan must win to keep its knockout round hopes alive.

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After a shock group-stage opener loss to Shakhtar Donetsk at home last week, Real Madrid looked to get back on the right track and move towards a knockout round qualification in a trip to Germany on Tuesday night.

However, despite being the presumptive favorites, Zinedine Zidane’s side left BORUSSIA-PARK with only a point after another disappointing performance.

Real Madrid visited Borussia Monchengladbach in a game that they wanted three points from to make up for their upset loss last week. However, instead of getting off to a good start, Los Blancos went down 2-0 early after Gladbach came out firing.

Marcus Thram scored a pair of goals, one in the 33rd minute and one in the 58th minute after halftime, to put Real Madrid in a hole that signaled big trouble for their Champions League hopes.

Somehow, however, Real Madrid stormed back to tie the match after a Karim Benzema strike in the 87th minute and then a Casemiro rocket as the final minutes of stoppage time expired.

Their late goal-scoring flurry, however, was only enough to secure them one point and leave them in last place in their group.

Zidane’s side will look to win three huge points as they host Inter next week, while Borussia Dortmund will try to keep pace at the top of the group as they travel to Shakhtar Donetsk.

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Real Madrid opened its 2020-21 Champions League campaign on Wednesday night against Shakhtar Donetsk at home. Despite being heavily favored to win this match, things didn’t quite go as planned for the all-time leaders in UCL triumphs.

Los Blancos went behind 0-3 in the first half against a Shakhtar Donetsk side that was missing a number of first-team players due to positive COVID-19 tests and was unable to complete a comeback in the second half.

The Ukrainians went ahead 0-1 in the 29th minute after a Tete goal, and a Raphael Varane mistake in front of Thibault Courtois’s net led to Shakhtar’s lead being doubled just four minutes later.

A counter-attack by the visitors led to a Solomon goal just before the half, and Real Madrid found itself in big trouble down 0-3 heading into the half.

Real Madrid appeared to have hope early in the second half after Luka Modric scored a long-range wonder goal to cut their deficit to 1-3. Just five minutes later and just after entering as a substitute, Vinicius Jr’s strike cut Shakhtar’s lead to 2-3.

However, despite trying and trying until the final whistle, Real Madrid was unable to score a goal to tie up the match, and they ended as 2-3 losers.

Los Blancos will attempt to get back on track in the Champions League next week against Borussia Monchengladbach, while Shakhtar Donetsk will look to grab a second consecutive upset against Inter Milan.

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The UEFA Champions League group stage draw for the 2020-21 edition of soccer’s most prestigious competition took place last week, with the inaugural matches set to be held on October 20th and 21st.

This year’s group stage features plenty of fascinating team matchups which could lead to surprises and early exits for title favorites. There are also plenty of groups that have several strong teams, making them potential “groups of death” in this year’s CL.

So, which groups are the toughest? Let’s take a look at the three which will be the hardest to navigate.

1. Group H

Teams: Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, RB Leipzig, İstanbul Başakşehir

Group H can be considered the toughest group in this year’s edition of the Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain heads the group as the reigning Ligue 1 winners who came agonizingly close to winning their first Champions League trophy in August, but fell short 0-1 to Bayern Munich.

Manchester United is always a strong group and will be considered by many to be favorites to finish second and qualify for the knockout stage. However, RB Leipzig might have something to say about that. These German upstarts are coming off of a run that saw them reach the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League and have plenty of talent to finish in the top two. İstanbul Başakşehir is clearly the biggest underdog, but after they won Turkey’s Super Lig last season, they can’t be counted out either.

2. Group B

Teams: Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Four teams with strong current sides and well-known European histories will square off in Group B, with any of the four teams being real threats to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Real Madrid, the most successful club in Champions League history, will be the presumptive favorites coming off of their 2019-20 La Liga title. Inter Milan came up just short in the Europa League final, losing to Sevilla, and they made their squad better during the summer after adding Achraf Hakimi, Arturo Vidal, and young midfield phenom Nicolo Barella ove rteh summer.

Those two teams will be the favorites to advance, but Shakhtar is a well-coached and solid unit whose home games in Ukraine are notoriously difficult to win. Add Borussia Mönchengladbach and its young and talented team to the mix, and you have the makings of a really tough group to get out of.

3. Group D

Teams: Liverpool, Ajax, Atalanta, FC Midtjylland

With all due respect to FC Midtjylland, this group’s toughness is all about the three other teams which will fight for the two knockout stage places in the group stage.

As we all know, Liverpool is widely considered to be the best team in Europe at the moment. They’ll have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove after being eliminated early by Atletico Madrid last season.

Ajax and Atalanta are two fascinating teams that will cause real problems for their opponents as well. Atalanta was one of the best stories of last year’s Champions League, and they’ve gotten off to a hot start in Serie A play this season with their all-out attacking philosophy. Ajax might not have the star power that they did in previous seasons, but they’re a tough out too. Anything could happen in this group.

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The final Premier League match of the season was held on Sunday, and there was still plenty of mystery as to which teams would qualify for next season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League.

After Manchester United and Chelsea took care of business and won on the final day of the season, they officially stamped their tickets to Europe’s premier club football competition for next season.

Chelsea squared off against Wolves and took home a 2-0 win, not only guaranteeing themselves a fourth place in the league and a UCL spot but also ensuring that Wolves would finish outside of European positions for next season.

The biggest match of the day was between Manchester United and Leicester City, as a win for either team would have boosted them to qualification status. The Red Devils and Leicester played to a cagey draw through the first 78 minutes of action until a Bruno Fernandes penalty put them in front.

An extra-time goal by Jesse Lingard was the cherry on top of the cake, as Man U qualified for the Champions League after missing out in disappointing fashion last season.

Leicester City and Tottenham, on the other hand, will play in the UEFA Europa League in 2020-21.

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Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool are through to the Champions League quarterfinals after eliminating Barcelona and RB Leipzig, respectively, on Wednesday night. They will join Porto and Borussia Dortmund, who punched their tickets for the next round the day before.

PSG hosted Barcelona at their Parc des Princes stadium after beating the La Liga side 4-1 in the 1st leg. While the French club were overwhelming favorites to advance, nothing was certain considering that Barca overturned 0-4 against them back in 2017.

Barca was the better side to start the game, creating several good chances, but PSG scored first. Mauro Icardi was taken down in the penalty area, and Kylian Mbappe coolly converted the kick to give his team a 1-0 lead.

The Catalan club didn’t take long to respond, with Leo Messi delivering a stunning goal to make the score 1-1 in the 37th minute.

The second half didn’t offer the excitement everyone hoped for, as the two sides remained scoreless. Barcelona attempted to make it interesting, but Paris defended well and managed to keep their sheet clean for the rest of the game.

The match between Liverpool and RB Leipzig offered a thrilling showdown as well, even though the home side had a 2-0 advantage. The Reds were going through a full-blown crisis, having lost six out of their seven last Premier League games, and Leipzig’s high-octane attack gave the Germans a feeling that they could turn things around.

Once the game kicked off, however, it was Liverpool who was dominating the game. The English club had better chances in the first half, while Leipzig struggled with creativity.

The sides were scoreless until the 70th minute when Mohammed Salah’s well-placed shot from the top of the key ended behind Peter Gulacsi. Several minutes later, Sadio Mane made it 2-0 thanks to a great cross from Divock Origi.

The UEFA Champions League resumes next week with the remaining 2nd leg matches of Round of 16.

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The 2021 Champions League draw for the Round of 16 took place on Monday in Nyon, Switzerland, and produced a set of matchups that will provide plenty of intrigue when the competition picks back up in March.

The matchups for the upcoming games are as follows:

• Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Manchester City
• Lazio vs. Bayern Munich
• Atletico Madrid vs. Chelsea
• RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool
• Porto vs. Juventus
• Barcelona vs. Paris Saint-Germain
• Sevilla vs. Borussia Dortmund
• Atalanta vs. Real Madrid

All eight matchups will take place over two ties, with the second-place group stage teams (listed first) hosting the first match, and the first-place teams (listed second) hosting the second and decisive match.

There is plenty of intrigue to be found in the matchups which have been drawn, including a blockbuster matchup pitting FC Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain.

Other fascinating matchups include upstarts RB Leipzig vs. the 2019 champions of Liverpool, Atletico Madrid taking on Chelsea, and last year’s Cinderella in Atalanta facing the best team in the competition’s history, Real Madrid.

The first legs of the matchups are set to be held in mid to late February, while the second legs will be held in early to mid March.

The world’s best competition looks to be set to provide fans with a buffet of matchups that should be fascinating once again.

The post Champions League Draw Features Barcelona Vs. PSG, RB Leipzig Vs. Liverpool appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Despite going into the final match of the group stage with their hopes for the knockout round still undecided, Real Madrid won a crucial 2-0 game against Borussia Monchengladbach to move to first place and advance to the next stage.

It was a complicated group stage for Los Blancos, who lost twice to Shakhtar Donetsk and had drawn their previous matchup against their German foes despite having beaten Inter Milan twice.

Zinedine Zidane’s squad came through at the Alfredo di Stefano Stadium on a chilly Wednesday night in Madrid when it counted the most, however, relying on two Karim Benzema goals to claim their spot in the knockout stage.

Benzema’s first goal happened thanks to a picture-perfect cross from Lucas Vazquez in the 9th minute of the game, which he calmly headed past Yann Sommer.

Madrid’s lead was doubled just over 20 minutes later after Benzema scored a very similar goal, following a Rodrygo Goes cross kick.

This was all Real Madrid needed to win and advance to the knockout stage as they have done every single time they have participated in the Champions League.

Real Madrid, the group winner, will await until Monday’s draw to find out their knockout stage opponent. Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach, who qualified as the group’s second place finisher, will hope to avoid any of the biggest teams in their draw.

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Things are beginning to look dire for Real Madrid’s Champions League hopes, after another loss against Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night.

Zinedine Zidane, who coaches Real Madrid, also lost on Saturday against Alaves, making this new loss sting even harder.

Real Madrid kept themselves even with Shakhtar Donetsk in the first half, and even had a great scoring oppurtunity when Martin Odegaard set up Marco Asensio for a possible goal. But after not converting, the teams went to the locker rooms knotted at 0.

After the second half whistle blew, however, Shakhtar began to find its feet, and a fatal Dentinho strike in the 57th minute gave them the lead.

Real Madrid was unable to generate many scoring chances after going down 1-0. With eight minutes left to go, a Manor Solomon goal put the Ukranians up 2-0.

Los Blancos, now 3rd place in Group B with 7 points, must now hope for at least a point in their visit to Borussia Monchengladbach in order to finish the group stage successfully.

A win would propel them into the knockout round, a draw would mean they would depend on Inter Milan defeating Shakhtar, and a loss would send them crashing out of the Champions League. Only time will tell how this dog fight will end.

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FC Barcelona continued its winning ways in the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League on Tuesday night, dispatching Dynamo Kiev on the road by a 0-4 final.

The Blaugrana rebounded from a weekend defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid to continue their perfect run in the group stage.

It was a nervy first half for Barça, as they failed to break through Dynamo Kiev’s defense and they went into the half with a 0-0 draw.

However, star summer-signing Sergino Dest made history by scoring his first goal for FC Barcelona in the 52nd minute, a score that opened up the floodgates.

The American full-back’s goal was followed by two scores by Martin Braithwaite and a stoppage-time goal by Antoine Griezmann which led to a four-goal, comfortable victory.

Interestingly, the match also saw Konrad De La Fuente debut for Bracelona, meaning that two Americans were on the pitch at the same time in a Champions League match for the first time since 2004.

The Miami-born De La Fuente entered in the 83rd minute for Trincao and made his FC Barcelona debut at the ripe age of 19.

Barcelona has already qualified for the knockout round of the Champions League and will now turn its attention to getting on track in La Liga with a home match versus Osasuna on Sunday.

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Real Madrid, who needed a big victory in a crucial group stage Champions League clash on Tuesday in order to stay in the hunt for knockout stage qualification, came back to beat Inter Milan dramatically and do just that.

Los Blancos, which had lost their UCL opener at home to Shakhtar Donetsk and then drawn at Borussia Monchengladbach, faced arguably their toughest opponent in Group B and stepped up their game.

Real Madrid got off to a hot start after Karim Benzema scored a breakaway goal in the 25th minute of the match to give his team a 1-0 lead. Just eight minutes later, Sergio Ramos headed in a corner kick to double his team’s lead and put Real Madrid fans at ease.

However, just a minute and a half later, Lautaro Martinez beat Thibault Courtois with a close-range strike to halve Real Madrid’s lead. Things started to look even worse for Los Blancos after Ivan Perisic scored after the half in the 68th minute.

Things weren’t over for Real Madrid, however, who scored again after a beautiful connection between Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo Goes resulted in the game-winning score.

This victory propels Real Madrid to 4 points and a tie with Shakhtar Donetsk in second place in the group. Inter is now bottom with only 2 points.

Real Madrid and Inter Milan will face off again, this time at the San Siro, on November 25th in yet another crucial matchup that Inter Milan must win to keep its knockout round hopes alive.

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After a shock group-stage opener loss to Shakhtar Donetsk at home last week, Real Madrid looked to get back on the right track and move towards a knockout round qualification in a trip to Germany on Tuesday night.

However, despite being the presumptive favorites, Zinedine Zidane’s side left BORUSSIA-PARK with only a point after another disappointing performance.

Real Madrid visited Borussia Monchengladbach in a game that they wanted three points from to make up for their upset loss last week. However, instead of getting off to a good start, Los Blancos went down 2-0 early after Gladbach came out firing.

Marcus Thram scored a pair of goals, one in the 33rd minute and one in the 58th minute after halftime, to put Real Madrid in a hole that signaled big trouble for their Champions League hopes.

Somehow, however, Real Madrid stormed back to tie the match after a Karim Benzema strike in the 87th minute and then a Casemiro rocket as the final minutes of stoppage time expired.

Their late goal-scoring flurry, however, was only enough to secure them one point and leave them in last place in their group.

Zidane’s side will look to win three huge points as they host Inter next week, while Borussia Dortmund will try to keep pace at the top of the group as they travel to Shakhtar Donetsk.

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Real Madrid opened its 2020-21 Champions League campaign on Wednesday night against Shakhtar Donetsk at home. Despite being heavily favored to win this match, things didn’t quite go as planned for the all-time leaders in UCL triumphs.

Los Blancos went behind 0-3 in the first half against a Shakhtar Donetsk side that was missing a number of first-team players due to positive COVID-19 tests and was unable to complete a comeback in the second half.

The Ukrainians went ahead 0-1 in the 29th minute after a Tete goal, and a Raphael Varane mistake in front of Thibault Courtois’s net led to Shakhtar’s lead being doubled just four minutes later.

A counter-attack by the visitors led to a Solomon goal just before the half, and Real Madrid found itself in big trouble down 0-3 heading into the half.

Real Madrid appeared to have hope early in the second half after Luka Modric scored a long-range wonder goal to cut their deficit to 1-3. Just five minutes later and just after entering as a substitute, Vinicius Jr’s strike cut Shakhtar’s lead to 2-3.

However, despite trying and trying until the final whistle, Real Madrid was unable to score a goal to tie up the match, and they ended as 2-3 losers.

Los Blancos will attempt to get back on track in the Champions League next week against Borussia Monchengladbach, while Shakhtar Donetsk will look to grab a second consecutive upset against Inter Milan.

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The UEFA Champions League group stage draw for the 2020-21 edition of soccer’s most prestigious competition took place last week, with the inaugural matches set to be held on October 20th and 21st.

This year’s group stage features plenty of fascinating team matchups which could lead to surprises and early exits for title favorites. There are also plenty of groups that have several strong teams, making them potential “groups of death” in this year’s CL.

So, which groups are the toughest? Let’s take a look at the three which will be the hardest to navigate.

1. Group H

Teams: Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, RB Leipzig, İstanbul Başakşehir

Group H can be considered the toughest group in this year’s edition of the Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain heads the group as the reigning Ligue 1 winners who came agonizingly close to winning their first Champions League trophy in August, but fell short 0-1 to Bayern Munich.

Manchester United is always a strong group and will be considered by many to be favorites to finish second and qualify for the knockout stage. However, RB Leipzig might have something to say about that. These German upstarts are coming off of a run that saw them reach the semi-finals of last season’s Champions League and have plenty of talent to finish in the top two. İstanbul Başakşehir is clearly the biggest underdog, but after they won Turkey’s Super Lig last season, they can’t be counted out either.

2. Group B

Teams: Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Borussia Mönchengladbach

Four teams with strong current sides and well-known European histories will square off in Group B, with any of the four teams being real threats to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Real Madrid, the most successful club in Champions League history, will be the presumptive favorites coming off of their 2019-20 La Liga title. Inter Milan came up just short in the Europa League final, losing to Sevilla, and they made their squad better during the summer after adding Achraf Hakimi, Arturo Vidal, and young midfield phenom Nicolo Barella ove rteh summer.

Those two teams will be the favorites to advance, but Shakhtar is a well-coached and solid unit whose home games in Ukraine are notoriously difficult to win. Add Borussia Mönchengladbach and its young and talented team to the mix, and you have the makings of a really tough group to get out of.

3. Group D

Teams: Liverpool, Ajax, Atalanta, FC Midtjylland

With all due respect to FC Midtjylland, this group’s toughness is all about the three other teams which will fight for the two knockout stage places in the group stage.

As we all know, Liverpool is widely considered to be the best team in Europe at the moment. They’ll have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove after being eliminated early by Atletico Madrid last season.

Ajax and Atalanta are two fascinating teams that will cause real problems for their opponents as well. Atalanta was one of the best stories of last year’s Champions League, and they’ve gotten off to a hot start in Serie A play this season with their all-out attacking philosophy. Ajax might not have the star power that they did in previous seasons, but they’re a tough out too. Anything could happen in this group.

The post Analyzing the Toughest UEFA Champions League Groups appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The final Premier League match of the season was held on Sunday, and there was still plenty of mystery as to which teams would qualify for next season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League.

After Manchester United and Chelsea took care of business and won on the final day of the season, they officially stamped their tickets to Europe’s premier club football competition for next season.

Chelsea squared off against Wolves and took home a 2-0 win, not only guaranteeing themselves a fourth place in the league and a UCL spot but also ensuring that Wolves would finish outside of European positions for next season.

The biggest match of the day was between Manchester United and Leicester City, as a win for either team would have boosted them to qualification status. The Red Devils and Leicester played to a cagey draw through the first 78 minutes of action until a Bruno Fernandes penalty put them in front.

An extra-time goal by Jesse Lingard was the cherry on top of the cake, as Man U qualified for the Champions League after missing out in disappointing fashion last season.

Leicester City and Tottenham, on the other hand, will play in the UEFA Europa League in 2020-21.

The post Chelsea, Manchester United Clinch CL Berths on Final Matchday appeared first on SportzBonanza.