The UEFA Champions League group stage draw took place this past week. The pinnacle of club football will begin anew on September 12th. I for one think this could be one of the strongest conglomeration of 32 teams the competition has had before. For the first time, the English Premier League will have five participants in the group stages. Three of those five, the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool, dodged significant bullets in their group selections. The two London outfits, Chelsea and Spurs, however, weren’t as fortunate. If England’s capital is going to be represented in the UCL Round of 16 come February, there is a lot of work to do.
CHELSEA- GROUP C
We’ll start with the defending Premier League champions. The Blues returned to prominence last year. Many partially attributed the immediate turnaround as much to a lack of UCL distraction than to Antonio Conte’s leadership. This summer they have added some great pieces to the fold, such as Alvaro Morata and Antonio Rudiger. But have they supplied themselves with enough depth to fight on two fronts: retaining their Premier League crown and making more than a cameo in the Champions League. Here are the teams they’ll have to go through to make the latter possible.
ATLETICO MADRID
Atletico Madrid has been quarter-finalists in each of the last four UCL campaigns. Each time they were eliminated by Real Madrid. What happened the last time Atleti were eliminated a different way? That would be in 2009-10 when Chelsea won their group. Despite winning the Europa League following that demotion, the club would make a managerial change midway through the next season. Diego Simeone’s influence on the club has been arguably grander than any other manager’s on their respective club during his tenure. I can’t see them not winning this group and doing so handily. That means Chelsea is playing for second at best. But against who?
AS ROMA
The Giallorossi lost quite a few talents this summer, including Rudiger to Chelsea. They’ve underwhelmed in Serie A through two games and look to not have many teeth in the attack. However, that may be a bit misleading. They’ve added Sampdoria striker Patrik Schick (with maybe the greatest announcement video ever) to work magic with Edin Dzeko up front. Daniele De Rossi and Radja Nainggolan are two of the best in turning defense into an attack from the defensive end of the midfield. It is not a guarantee by any stretch that Roma could take points at home or at Stamford Bridge.
QARABAG
If there is any definite chance of success in the UCL for Chelsea, it will come at the expense of Azerbaijani side Qarabag. The Horsemen are the first Azerbaijan side to ever make the UCL group stage. They bested Danish champions Copenhagen in the shock of the final qualifying round. I could say that Qarabag has won the last four Azerbaijan Premier League seasons, doing the double with the Azerbaijan Cup in the last three. The club has begun their domestic campaign with three straight wins. All this means nothing though in terms of Chelsea. If the Blues can’t get six points from the home and away legs here, then their prospects of advancement are even bleaker.
Chelsea leads off their quest with Qarabag on September 12th so they’ll be allowed to ease into European competition. After going to Atletico at the end of the month, the two defining games of the group stage take place at the back half of October. If Chelsea drops points in the back to back with Roma, they could very well drop to the Europa League.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR- GROUP H
Tears can be shed for Chelsea, but no English team drew a shorter straw in the UCL than Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs floundered in what was viewed as a weaker group last year. They were unceremoniously ousted of the Europa League as well in the Round of 32. Spurs need a turnaround year in Europe, but they are going to need a ton of luck to get through a proverbial group of death in Group H. Here is Tottenham’s rocky road.
APOEL
The five-time reigning Cypriot champions are the weak link of Group H, but that is less on them and more on their groupmates. The Nicosia club is a regular participant in Europe and even made the quarterfinals in the 2011-12 Champions League. They play a primarily defensive game, something they’ll need to do to stay afloat in Group H. There is a chance they can play spoiler, but like Qarabag in Group C, these two games need to produce six points for Spurs.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND
BVB is consistently regarded as one of the best young clubs in Europe. The Germans have trouble keeping their top players past a certain point; they just lost Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona for a 10x profit, but they restock better than any team in the Bundesliga. Christian Pulisic, Marcos Reus, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are still up front for Dortmund, and the team has already turned the Dembele cash influx into Schalke’s Andriy Yarmolenko and Hoffenheim’s Jeremy Toljan. Since making the 2012-13 UCL finals, Dortmund has never been eliminated at the group stage.
REAL MADRID
We’ll close with the defending UCL champions. When the initial pot of the draw was being divvied up, Group H became the least favorable once Real Madrid was placed in it. They have won the competition in three of the last four years. Their roster is deep and their pockets are even deeper despite a quiet summer. The last time Real met Spurs in the UCL, it wasn’t pretty. A 1-0 first leg was quickly forgotten following a 4-0 marauding at the Bernabeu.
Wembley hasn’t been the most homely place for Spurs as they wait for their new stadium to be completed. The get Dortmund in “their house” first on the 13th. They don’t return home in the UCL until November when Real Madrid come calling. Third place almost seems destined for Tottenham. It’s a shame with the roster they have. What could very well be their last run in their current iteration, they got the worst draw possible.
Which of the London clubs do you think will make it out of the group stages? Do you think any of the English teams are in trouble? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @sportsftb or myself @TREVORutley.