Istanbul (AFP)
The draw for the group stage of the European Champions League in football resulted in Bayern Munich, against Barcelona, of Spain, and the draw took place in Istanbul, which will be the stage of the final match on June 10, 2023.
By virtue of the presence of Bayern Munich in the first level and Barcelona in the second, the draw resulted in their falling into the same group, which is the third that will be fiery with the presence of the Italian Inter as well.
And the coincidence decided to put the Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who moved to Barcelona this summer, in the face of his former team Bayern, who left him after defending his colors since 2014, and he was crowned top scorer in the German League six times in the past seven seasons.
The date between the two teams is renewed after they were in the same group last season, when Bayern won back and forth with a single score 3-0.
The confrontation will also be a replay of the 2019-2020 quarter-final, which was held in a one-match gathering system in Portugal due to the Corona virus, and at that time the Bavarian club achieved a historic result 8-2 on its way to the sixth title in its history at the expense of the French Paris Saint-Germain, which the lottery placed in Group H Next to the Italian Juventus, he faces his former winger Angel Di Maria, who recently joined the Turin giants.
As for Real Madrid, which won its fourteenth title in the competition last season at the expense of Liverpool, it appears on paper that it faces an easy task, after it came in Group F alongside Leipzig of Germany, Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine and Celtic of Scotland.
As for his runner-up, Liverpool, the champion of the competition 6 times, the last of which was in 2019, he came in the first group with Ajax Amsterdam, Napoli of Italy and Rangers of Scotland, while Manchester City, the English Premier League champion, fell in Group G along with Seville, Spain, Borussia Dortmund, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
With the World Cup in Qatar being held in the winter, the group stage program will be compressed, with the six stages taking place over two months, as the World Cup from November 20 to December 18 forced the European Union to hold all matches within nine weeks, starting from September 6.
On the other hand, Real Madrid’s French striker Karim Benzema was crowned the best footballer in Europe in the European Union referendum, and Italian Carlo Ancelotti, coach of Real Madrid, won the best coach award.