Champions: potential rivals to Porto, Sporting and Benfica

With the end of the national championships 2021/22, the composition of the group stage of the next edition of the UEFA Champions League, in which they are already Porto And Sporting, is still being defined. He should play Benfica in the qualifying round, in a scenario that is also starting to take shape.

There are now a total of 26 clubs already confirmed in the group stage of competition for 2022/23.

In addition to FC Porto and Sporting, they are in the group stage Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, Liverpool and Paris Saint-GermainAnd Milan, intermilan, Salzburg, Naples, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen, Shakhtar Donetsk, Ajax, Celtic, Club Brugge, AT. Madrid, Seville, Leipzig, Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt (European League winners), Tottenham and Marseille.

In addition, with the title win, FC Porto also know that they will be in the first tier of the group stage and there is a team that includes Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Milan, Manchester City and Eintracht Frankfurt. The teams that you will not be able to face in the group stage.

you The lions already know they will stay in pot 3, The same thing in it Benfica If you pass the qualification. Lisbon could not face Borussia Dortmund, Salzburg, Shakhtar, Inter Milan, Napoli and Leverkusen, as the teams placed the same bet.

Composition of pots and potential opponents of the Portuguese (see Benfica in playoffs below):

pot 1: Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto, Milan, Manchester City and Eintracht Frankfurt (7/8).
(Liverpool completes the pot if they win the Champions League, otherwise Ajax enters Pot 1 as champions of the Netherlands)

pot 2: Barcelona, ​​Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Seville, Leipzig, Chelsea, Tottenham (7/8);
(Liverpool or Ajax)

Pot 3: Borussia Dortmund Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Napoli, Sporting, Inter Milan, Bayer Leverkusen (7/8); (Benfica enters here if it passes qualification – see below)

pot 4: Marseille Club Brugge and Celtic (3/8).

The Champions League group stage consists of 32 teams divided into eight groups, with most places occupied until the end of the season and only a small portion will be decided between July and August 2022, when there will be pre-knockout rounds and hem.

This is where Benfica comes in.

With third place in the tournament, the Reds will enter the third qualifying round for the non-champions and have a place in the Sporting bet pending (if they reach the group stage): 3. This track includes four matches, similar to what happened in last season when Benfica faced Spartak Moscow In the third round of qualifying and Eindhoven in the play-offs.

Ajax’s confirmation as champion means PSV themselves are in second place. The team led by future Benfica coach Roger Schmidt does not have a specific situation yet, so they could still remain opponents of the Reds, who are seeded, directly in the third qualifying round.

Glasgow Rangers, who dreamed of direct entry to the group stage – which would have happened had they won the Europa League – will be with Benfica in the third preliminary round and as a tier. In other words, the Scottish vice-champion will not fall to Benfica before the play-off, like Dynamo Kyiv and PSV Eindhoven. However, the Ukrainian club has not yet qualified for the second round of qualifying.

Who can, yes, go out to the Reds are Monaco from France, Storm Graz from Austria, St. Gilois from Belgium or Midtjelland from Denmark.

Basically, the situation for the third qualifying round is as follows:

Series Heads
Benfica
Glasgow Rangers
Eindhoven Eindhoven
Dynamo Kyiv * (not yet played in the second preliminary round)

There is no string header
Monaco
Sturm Graz
St. jelwaise
Midtjylland * (not yet played in the second qualifying round)