Barcelona, as champion of the Spanish LaLiga, and Sevilla, winner of the Europa League, are among the seeds led by Manchester City, defending champions, in the draw for the group stage of the Champions League 2023/ 24, which will be held at 6:00 p.m. this Thursday in Monaco.
They will be the two Spanish teams installed in pot 1 along with Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain, Benfica, Naples and Feyenoord, the champions of the other main leagues. Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid appear in pot 2, which will be in the same sphere as Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Porto and Arsenal.
In addition to Real Sociedad, which has ‘fallen’ to 4, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sazlburgo, Milan, Lazio, Red Star, Celtic Glasgow, Union Berlin, Lens, Newcastle and the survivors of the various previous rounds will enter the draw. In the absence of the last turn of this Wednesday, with the matches AEK-Antwerp, Copenhagen-Rakow and PSV-Rangers, the survivors are Galatasaray, Braga and Young Boys.
The group stage will take place on September 19/20, October 3/4 and 24/25, November 7/8 and 28/29, and December 12/13. As in past seasons, the first two will reach the round of 16 and the third will go to the ‘play offs’ of the Europa League.
During the draw, the awards ceremony will take place for the best players and coaches of the 2022/23 season, both in the female and male categories. The Spanish and world champions Aitana Bonmatí and Olga Carmona, together with the Australian Sam Kerr, have been nominated for the best player of the year award by UEFA in the 22-23 season.
The candidates for the best women’s soccer coach are the Spaniards Jonathan Giráldez, coach of Barcelona, champion of the League and Champions League, and Jorge Vilda, world champion in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Dutch Sarina Wiegman, semifinalist of the Copa del World with England.
The Argentine Leo Messi, until last year at PSG and now at Inter Miami, the Belgian Kevin de Bruyne and the Norwegian Erling Haaland, both from Manchester City and winners of the Premier FA Cup, Champions League and Super Cup, are the three candidates for the UEFA best player of the 2022/23 season award. The candidates for best coach of the campaign are the Spanish Josep Guardiola (Manchester City), winner of the Champions League and the European Super Cup, and the Italians Simone Inzaghi (Inter Milan) and Luciano Spalletti (Naples).
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