August 29 – The draw for the group stages of the Champions League, conducted in Monaco today, threw up its usual mixture of mouth-watering ties and unknown quantities.
Defending champions Real Madrid will face five-time winners Liverpool, back in the tournament for the first time since 2010, while the group also features debutants Ludogorets of Bulgaria.
Real won the title for the 10th time when they beat Atletico Madrid 4-1 after extra time in Lisbon in May and have the chance to avenge a 5-0 aggregate defeat to Liverpool in the last 16 five years ago.
Arsenal were drawn in the same group as Borussia Dortmund for the second successive season, as were Bayern Munich and Manchester City while Chelsea look to have a kind draw against Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor, the Slovenian side who knocked out Celtic in the final qualifying round.
Last season’s runners-up Atletico were grouped with former champions Juventus, Olympiakos Piraeus and Malmo of Sweden.
Group A: Atletico de Madrid (Sp), Juventus (It), Olympiacos (Gr), Malmo (Swe).
Group B: Real Madrid (Sp), Basel (Swz), Liverpool (Eng), Ludogorets (Bul).
Group C: Benfica (Por), Zenit St Petersburg (Rus), Bayer Leverkusen (Ger), Monaco (Fr).
Group D: Arsenal (Eng), Borussia Dortmund (Ger), Galatasaray (Tur), Anderlecht (Bel).
Group E: Bayern Munich (Ger), Manchester City (Eng), CSKA Moscow (Rus), Roma (It).
Group F: Barcelona (Sp), Paris Saint-Germain (Fr), Ajax Amsterdam (Hol), APOEL (Cyp).
Group G: Chelsea (Eng), Schalke (Ger), Sporting Clube (Por), Maribor (Svn).
Group H: Porto (Por), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr), Athletic Bilbao (Sp), BATE Borisov (Blr).
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