Rangers, represented by Glen Kamara, will face Ajax, Liverpool and Napoli in the first group.
STT Sports,
Joska Saarinen
25.8. 20:20•Updated 25.8. 20:41
The groups for the men’s soccer Champions League were drawn on Thursday in Istanbul, Turkey, where a total of 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four teams.
Two Finns are participating in the star tournament of European football. The goalkeeper of Bayer Leverkusen, the dominant third in the German Bundesliga Lukas Hradecky got Glen Kamaran for the club, when Scottish Glasgow Rangers beat PSV 3-2 on aggregate in the qualifying finals on Wednesday.
In their group games, Kamaran Rangers will face the English giant Liverpool, Dutch Ajax and Italian Napoli. The opponents of Hradecky’s Leverkusen were perennial winners Atletico Madrid, Belgian pride Club Brugge and Portugal’s reigning champion Porto.
The last time the two Finns met in the group stage of the Champions League was in the 2019–20 season, when Hradecky was paired with KRC Genkin Jere Uronen.
The top two of the groups advance to the playoffs, while the top three continue to the Europa League playoffs.
The World Cup picks up the pace
The Champions League has always been the most watched football event in Europe during the winter, but the World Cup final tournament in Qatar, which starts on November 20, naturally comes first in the order of importance and clearly compresses the group schedules.
Play starts in September, a week earlier than a year ago, but the final round is already set for November 1st and 2nd, which shortens the group stage by more than a month.
Five player changes are here to stay, and that helps ease the strain. On the other hand, before the games, the players of tough football countries have a huge desire to be on the screen in order to get a place in the World Cup team.
This favors teams like Manchester City, where you can find quality players for a couple of pitches.
The Champions League final will be played in May 2023 in Istanbul.
Champions League groups in the 2022-23 season
Block A:
Ajax, Holland
Liverpool, England
Naples, Italy
Glasgow Rangers, Scotland
Block B:
Porto, Portugal
Atletico Madrid, Spain
Bayer Leverkusen, Germany
Club Brugge, Belgium
Block C:
Bayern Munich, Germany
Barcelona, Spain
Inter, Italy
Viktoria Plzen, Czech Republic
Block D:
Eintracht Frankfurt, Germany
Tottenham, England
Sporting Lisbon, Portugal
Marseille, France
Block E:
AC Milan, Italy
Chelsea, England
Salzburg, Austria
Dinamo Zagreb, Croatia
Block F:
Real Madrid, Spain
RB Leipzig, Germany
Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine
Celtic Scotland
Block G:
Manchester City, England
Seville, Spain
Dortmund, Germany
FC Copenhagen, Denmark
Block H:
PSG, France
Juventus, Italy
Benfica, Portugal
Maccabi Haifa, Israel