Bayern face a tough but attractive task in the preliminary stage of this season’s Champions League after the 2013 winners were drawn to play French side Paris Saint-German, Belgian champions Anderlecht and Scottish champions Celtic in Group B.
The draw for the first stage of Europe’s elite club competition was made at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Thursday evening, supervised by UEFA deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti and UEFA head of club competitions Michael Heselschwerdt, and conducted on this occasion by recently retired Italy and Roma star Francesco Totti alongside ambassador for the 2018 final Andriy Shevchenko.
In the draw, Bayern were among the eight seeded teams drawn from Pot 1, although the top eight are no longer determined according to their UEFA club coefficients but instead comprise the holders plus the champions from the seven strongest leagues. The UEFA coefficients, based on performance over the last five seasons, were then used to assign the 24 non-seeded teams into pots.
The eight groups of four comprise one team from each pot. Teams from the same country cannot be drawn together at the group stage, so Bayern could not have faced Borussia Dortmund (Pot 2) or RB Leipzig (Pot 4). The group stage matches all kick off at the usual time of 20.45 CET. The first matchday in the 2016/17 campaign is on Tuesday 12 or Wednesday 13 September, with the final on 28 May 2018 at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.
Click here for reaction to the draw from the FCB camp.
Click here to learn more about Bayern's Champions League opponents.
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