Pumps for Madrid and Seville; luck for Celta, Barça and Atleti
UEFA has celebrated the Youth League draw, which this year will have a new format due to the pandemic. The group stage is eliminated and the 64 participating teams will play direct qualifiers. They will be resolved as a single match, starting the competition on March 2 and 3. It is divided into two routes: on the one hand, the 32 participants in the current edition of the Champions League and, on the other, the 32 national champions of the confederations with the best coefficient. At the crossroads of eighths, both routes will merge.
In the draw there were five Spanish teams, four as Champions (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético and Sevilla) and Celta as national champions. Fortune has turned its back on Real Madrid (current champion) and Sevilla. The whites are paired with Manchester United and will also have to play in England, while the Andalusians must face PSG but at least they will have the field factor.
Best luck have been for Barcelona and Atlético, who will play Dinamo Kiev and Midtjylland, respectively. The bad news is that both will have to do it abroad, with long trips. The blaugrana will travel to Ukraine and the rojiblancos must travel to Denmark.
Finally, Celta, who are making their debut in the competition, should have no problems getting through this first phase. He will play against Olimpia Ljubljana and although the match will be played in the Slovenian capital, the Galicians have one of the best generations in their history and are one of the favorites in the phase of the national champions, who will only face each other in the first two rounds.
This is the draw:
Champions path of participantsOlympiacos-City
Inter Bayern
Sevilla-PSG
Shakhtar-Porto
Ajax-Krasnodar
Manchester United-Real Madrid
Basaksehir-Bruges
Atalanta-Leipzig
Zenit-Rennes
Juventus-Dortmund
Midtjylland-Atlético
Chelsea-Salzburg
Liverpool-Marseille
Dinamo Kiev-Barcelona
Lokomotiv-Ferencvaros
Mönchengladbach-Lazio
Route of the national championsZabrze (Poland) -PAOK (Greece)
Olympia Ljubljana (Slovenia) -Celta (Spain)
APOEL (Greece) -Viitorul (Romania)
Apollonia (Armenia) -Gyori ETO (Hungary)
GNK Dinamo (Croatia) -Rosenborg (Norway)
Hammarby (Sweden) -Wateford (Ireland)
Galatasaray (Turkey) -AZ Alkmar (Netherlands)
Rangers (Scotland) -Cologne (Germany)
Angers (France) -Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)
Genk (Belgium) -MSK Zilina (Slovakia)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) -Benfica (Portugal)
Basel (Switzerland) -Odense (Denmark)
Tiraspol (Moldova) -Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan)
Chertanovo (Russia) -Maccabi Haifa (Israel)
Dynamo Minsk (Belarus) -Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
Skhendija (Macedonia) -Gabala (Azerbaijan)
Photos from as.com
