admin For the first time in history, Manchester City will enter the Champions League season as defending champions.
After years of being a ‘team to win’, Cityzens finally lifted the trophy in the 2022/23 season, winning the Premier League title and the FA Cup, three times behind Manchester United. got the crown.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Man City’s road to the 2022/23 Champions League title is that they never got into trouble. In the round of 16 first leg against RB Leipzig, he languished before making any significant progress.
City then beat Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, then narrowly beat Inter in the final, but only once.
Winning the Champions League is really hard, but defending it is even harder. Here are some of the teams City could face early on.
What 2023/24 Champions League pot are Man City in?
Given that they have won the Premier League and Champions League, it makes no sense to speculate on which pot Pep Guardiola’s side are in.
He could have taken two spots in Pot 1 if the rules allowed him, but instead he got two qualifications and Feyenoord advances to Pot 1 as Dutch champions.
2023/24 Champions League pot 1
| Team | League | UEFA coefficient |
|---|---|---|
| Manchester City | Premier League | 145.000 |
| Sevilla | La Liga | 91.000 |
| Barcelona | La Liga | 98.000 |
| Napoli | Serie A | 81.000 |
| Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | 136.000 |
| Paris Saint-Germain | Ligue 1 | 112.000 |
| Benfica | Primeira Liga | 82.000 |
| Feyenoord | Eredivisie | 51.000 |
Manchester City’s 2023/24 potential Champions League group stage opponents
| Team | League | Pot | UEFA coefficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Madrid | La Liga | 2 | 121.000 |
| Inter | Serie A | 2 | 96.000 |
| Borussia Dortmund | Bundesliga | 2 | 86.000 |
| Atletico Madrid | La Liga | 2 | 85.000 |
| RB Leipzig | Bundesliga | 2 | 84.000 |
| Porto | Primeira Liga | 2 | 81.000 |
| Shakhtar Donetsk | Ukrainian Premier League | 3 | 63.000 |
| Red Bull Salzburg | Austrian Bundesliga | 3 | 59.000 |
| AC Milan | Serie A | 3 | 50.000 |
| Lazio | Serie A | 3 | 42.000 |
| Red Star Belgrade | Serbian SuperLiga | 3 | 42.000 |
| Real Sociedad | La Liga | 3 or 4 | 33.000 |
| Celtic | Scottish Premiership | 3 or 4 | 31.000 |
| 6 qualifiers | N/A | 3 or 4 | N/A |
| Union Berlin | Bundesliga | 4 | 17.000 |
| Lens | Ligue 1 | 4 | 12.232 |
You may have noticed that Pot 1 doesn’t look as scary as it usually does. It only means one thing. Pot 2 has a good team that can cause problems for everyone.
There is one aspect that sets us apart from the others. real madrid. Man City may have passed them last season, but they already signed Jude Bellingham and won’t stop there.
There are other great teams like Inter, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. Manchester United and Arsenal are also in Pot 2 but will not face each other in the group stage.
Approaching pots 3 and 4, there are clubs that could pose a problem for anyone that day. However, at the time of this writing, there are few things that will seriously scare City fans.
As for pot 3, it’s all superfluous as, as per tradition, Man City again draws Shakhtar his Donetsk. Miraculously, the other teams currently confirmed to be in Pot 3 are RB Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio Roma and Red Star He Belgrade. A trip to Italy could very well be on the horizon for Man City.
Newcastle, Celtic and Real Sociedad are currently wandering between Pots 3 and 4 awaiting the results of the qualifying rounds. Man City can’t play Newcastle, but they could face Celtic like they did in 2016. The group of Man City and Real Sociedad will give David Silva a nostalgic return to the Etihad.
Of the four confirmed pot teams, only Lens and Union Berlin are at this stage. Neither scares City, but both are compelling teams and clubs in their own right.
