FC Barcelona have learned who their group stage opponents will be in this season’s Champions League.
The Catalans came out of Pot 1 as La Liga holders for the first time in four years, after winning their maiden Spanish championship crown under coach Xavi Hernandez in May.
This meant that they would automatically avoid tricky potential foes such as Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich – who they were drawn in the group with for the past two editions of Europe’s elite competition.
In 2021/2022, the Bavarians topped Group E with Benfica second, which threw Barca into the Europa League where they were eliminated by eventual winners Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals.
Last season, Barca fared even worse when Group C was won by Bayern with Inter Milan – who went on to finish runners-up in the Istanbul final to Manchester City – second.
On this occasion, Xavi’s men failed to get past the play off stage into the knockouts of the Europa League as City’s crosstown rivals Manchester United KO’d them through a comeback win at Old Trafford.
This term then, FC Porto, FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp are the teams that stand in Barca’s way of getting to the last 16 after they were thrown together in Group H by Thursday’s draw in Monaco.
The first fixture of the group stage will be played on either September 19 or 20 with the final, sixth game completed on December 12 or 13.
If Barca get there, they will play the first leg of the last 16 on either February 13-14 or 20-21.
Barca’s participation in this edition of the UCL was touch and go after the emergence of what is known as the ‘Caso Negreira’ in Spain.
It involves Barca having paid the former vice president of the Referees’ Committee between regularly 2001 and 2018, but president Joan Laporta insists that the payments were made for honest consultation work.
European football governing body UEFAEFA cleared Barca to play the Champions League this term but said that an investigation into Caso Negreira could be reopened at their end if more evidence emerges.
Another obstacle that arose at the start of the week was Onda Cero reporting how the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) asked UEFA to suspend it because of “government interventionism”.
This pertained to the Spanish government denouncing RFEF president Luis Rubiales to the national sports court because of his conduct following the women’s World Cup final.
If UEFA had honored the RFEF’s request, all Spanish teams would have immediately been excluded from European competitions.
The request was thrown out, however, meaning five La Liga outfits will contest the UCL in 2023/2024.
