Barça, Madrid and Sevilla, who will be in Pot 2, hope to meet Sporting or Lille and avoid Chelsea, City, Bayern and Inter in the league
Messi, Neymar and Mbappé's PSG share hype with culés, meringues and blanquillos and will not be able to cross them like Liverpool, Manchester United, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund
All those in the second cup, except the three Spaniards, are possible rivals of Atlético and Villarreal, present among the seeds.

Istanbul, which in 2021 was also unable to host the Champions League final as it initially had to in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, this Thursday (6pm / Let's go, Movistar Champions League) will be the scene of the group stage draw of the competition. In the Turkish capital, which will regain the venue for the final in 2023 after hosting this edition of Saint Petersburg, the first stops on the way for Barça will be defined, which for the second consecutive year will not appear in the hype of the seeded having conquered LaLiga. In the same situation are Real Madrid and Seville, who hope to avoid the reigning champions Chelsea, Manchester City, Bayern and Inter, the four bones of Cup 1 and deal with a diminished Lille and Sporting Lisbon. Atlético and Villarreal, also in the first pot as they are the Spanish champion and the Europa Leaguecan champion, cannot meet them but they can meet those of a pot 2 that this year has the character of 1 with all the law.

The PSG of Messi, Neymar and for the moment Mbappé will not be able to be rival of Barça, Madrid and Seville, at least until the round of 16, and will be one of the other 'greats' of the second cup together with Liverpool, Manchester United, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund. The possibility, therefore, of a group of death grows a lot as PSG and Juventus are not in the first in favor of Lille and Sporting. In key, Barça could already take place European classics against Tuchel's Chelsea with the icing on the cake from Lukaku, Inter without the Belgian but with Dzeko as a substitute, Lautaro and last year's block or Nagelsmann's new Bayern. It would be the first clash after 2-8 in Lisbon in August 2020. City, with Guardiola, only met Barça in 2016-17, which would now face Grealish and the curiosity of seeing Eric Garcia back and Agüero (if OK then) to the Etihad Stadium.

Pot 3, with pitfalls to be suspicious

The level of the other drums is also to take into account. In the 3, Leipzig (semifinalist in 2020) appears along with other uncomfortable rivals such as Ajax, Atalanta, Porto, Salzburg (they beat Barça 2-1 on August 4), Malcom's Zenit, Shakhtar and Benfica. These last two blocked the passage of Cesc's Monaco (2-2 in overtime without the double value of the out-of-case goals being worth 1-2 in the event of a tie in the tie) and PSV Eindhoven in the last previous round , respectively.

And in the fourth cup, watch out for Milan

In it are the eight with the lowest coefficient, and the 'rossoneri', who return to the Champions League eight years later as runners-up of the 'scudetto', are the fiercest of all. Wolfsburg, Dinamo Kiev, Besiktas, Club Brugge, Young Boys, Malmö, coached by former Dane Jon Dahl Tomasson and Moldovan Sheriff Tiraspol, Dinamo Zagreb's executioner and the only rookie in the group stage.

Ivanovic and Essien, innocent hands

Branislav Ivanovic and Michael Essien, two former Chelsea champions, the defending club, will be the historical players who will move the balls at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul.

The representatives of Barça

The first vice president, Rafa Yuste, and Jordi Cruyff, a member of the football area, will represent Barça in the Ottoman capital.

THE SWEEPSTAKES CRITERIA

1- The first cup is not ordered according to UEFA coefficients and is made up of the champions of the six best European leagues and the Champions and Europa League champions

2- From the second cup, the teams are ordered according to their coefficients

3- Teams from the same cup cannot face each other.

4- Teams from the same country or Russians cannot play against Ukrainians.

THE DATES OF THE LEAGUE

J-1: September 14-15

J-2: September 28-29

J-3: October 19-20

J-4: 2-3 November

J-5: 23-24 November

J-6: December 7-8

AND OF THE ELIMINATORIES

1/8 final: February 15-16-22-23 and March 8-9-15-16

1/4 final: 56 and 12-13 April

Semis: April 26-27 and May 4-4

Final: May 28 (St. Petersburg: Krestovsky Stadium)