This Thursday afternoon, Porto, Braga and Benfica faced opponents in the 2023/24 Champions League group stage. Judging by the “rating” of the draws, the most unlucky in the draw, which took place in Monaco, were the inhabitants of Minho.
Braga, who are participating in the tournament for the third time, are drawn into Group C with Italian champions Napoli and a team filling the museum with early Real Madrid, who have already won the competition 14 times.
Artur Jorge’s team also did not benefit from the team played in Pot 4, theoretically the weakest. Union Berlin, owned by the Portuguese Diogo Leite, is the current leader of the German championship.
Group C – Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga and Union Berlin.
Minho’s team went into the draw aware of the possibility of more difficult opponents due to being in the third pot. The first team to join the group was Napoli, where Portugal’s Mario Rui plays. Last season the Italians were one of the best teams in international football.
The team, now coached by France’s Rudi Garcia, finished first in the league under Italy’s Luciano Spalletti. In the Champions League, they achieved historic participation and reached the quarter-finals, being eliminated by Milan.
In addition to two difficult meetings with the Neapolitans, Braga will have a difficult task with the second team to draw, Real Madrid. Meringue leads in all competition records. These are the most winning team (14 trophies), the one that has entered the competition the most times (42), the one that has played the most matches (476) and the one that has won the most times (285). Numbers that speak for themselves and prove how difficult it is for the people of Minho to defeat the Madrilenians.
Even in the fourth basket, Braga was not spared. Last to win, Union Berlin was one of Germany’s most outstanding teams last season. Berliners finished fourth in the league and reached the 1/8 finals of the Europa League, where they met Braga twice. The first match was won by the Germans (1-0), in the second meeting Minho got revenge (1-0).
The games against the Germans are marked by the return of Diogo Leite to Pedreira. Brought up at Porto, the 24-year-old Portuguese centre-back was loaned to Braga by the Dragons for the 2021/22 season.
Group D: Benfica, Inter, RB Salzburg and Real Sociedad.
Benfica, the only Portuguese team in the first pot, will take on last season’s killer in the millionaire competition, Inter Milan, in this Champions League season. The Italians, who also eliminated Porto, managed to reach the final last year and lost 1-0 to Manchester City.
The Eagles have the opportunity to take revenge on the Milanese after losing the first leg of the quarter-finals with a score of 2-0 and a draw in the second leg with a score of 3-3.
The team, led by Italian Simone Inzaghi, retained most of the players included in the finalists of the last edition. Inter retained all 11 players who took part in the final against City in Istanbul.
The draw for the third pot indicated that Benfica would face the Austrian RB Salzburg. The team that brought Haaland to fame as the UEFA Player of the Year.
The team, coached by Gerhard Struber, the reigning Austrian champion, has finished first in the league in 14 of the last 17 years. The best result in the Champions League came recently, in the 2021/22 season, when they reached the round of 16 of the tournament.
Real Sociedad was the last team to enter Roger Schmidt’s group of eagles. The Basques arrived at the competition after finishing fourth in the Spanish league.
Despite the fact that they did not start the season in the best way, they have three draws in the same number of games. txuri-urdin, promise to be a tough nut to crack, especially in home matches. The best result in the league of millionaires was achieved in the 1982/1982 season, when they lost in the semi-finals after beating Sporting in the “quarter”.
Group H – Barcelona, Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk and Antwerp.
The dragons were unable to avoid the Pot 1 shark, which proved to be a difficult task. Sergio Conceição’s team will face Barcelona after Nico González’s return to the Camp Nou, after switching from coules to blue-and-whites this off-season.
The teams have not faced each other since 2011, when Barcelona defeated Porto in Monaco to win the European Super Cup. In a match in which Moutinho was in the center of the field and in which Messi was present, not a single player remained in both sets. Current Barcelona coach Javi Hernandez was the captain and lifted the cup after a 2-0 win.
Porto will also face Shakhtar Donetsk, a team that will play their matches in Hamburg, Germany as a result of the military conflict with Russia. Ukrainians, the chronic champions of the Eastern European country, finished the last championship in first place.
In the entire history of duels, the blue-whites have never lost. On account of their three wins and three draws, in four matches of the Champions League and two in the Cup Winners’ Cup.
The latest team on the path of the dragons is Royal Antwerp, a Belgian team that has not competed since 1957/1958. The team arrives at the competition after finishing the last championship in first place, after more than 65 years without a Belgian title.
With Sergio Conceição, the Dragons only in the 2021/22 season did not reach the “playout” of the tournament (once present in the group stage). He reached the quarter-finals in 2021 and 2019, both times being eliminated alongside eventual winners Chelsea and Liverpool respectively.
Author: morning Post
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.