The Champions League groups were drawn in Mónaco on Thursday but the big news was the unveiling of the official match ball for the competition. The ball keeps the traditional star figures, this time in green, but it’s the writing in the stars that’s sure to capture the attention.
The stars have characterized the official Champions League ball in recent years, of course, accompanied by the logo of this UEFA tournament.
UEFA have tweaked the Champions League rules to benefit the big clubs and the big leagues. This comes as a surprise to approximately nobody.
Per ESPNFC:
Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the UEFA Player of the Season, much to the chagrin of one Antoine Griezmann, who thought he merited the win.
Here's what Griezmann told World Soccer earlier this week:
"Without being big-headed, I think I deserve it because I had a great season with my club and with the national team. Maybe I deserve to win the award.
Pep Guardiola doesn't coach Barcelona anymore (he'll stop by the Camp Nou for a visit with Manchester City in the UCL group stage), but the Blaugrana can still tiki-taka teams to death.
During last season's UCL group stage, they did their whole "death by 1,000 paper cuts" routine on Roma and it won UEFA's Goal of the Season award. Messi, the finisher, is technically the recipient, but we think the whole damn team should get a trophy for that move.
A quick word about the actual Champions League draw: it's a big dumb ceremony that needs some fixing, but will never be fixed because UEFA will never, ever admit that something is bad enough to need fixing. Anyway, the groups have been announced, and there's some fun stuff in here.
Group A: PSG, Arsenal, Basel, Ludogorets Razgrad
— The18 (@the18soccer) August 25, 2016
Last week, during a UEFA Champions League qualifying playoff match against Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva at Celtic Park, supporters of the Glasgow club raised Palestinian flags to raise awareness of what they describe as “the system of apartheid laws and practices including religious and ethnic based colonisation, military occupation and segregation” in Palestinian land.
There are no easy matches in the Champions League — or are there? According to Barcelona’s Gerard Pique, Real Madrid got the rub of the green with regards to Champions League draws last season.
Real Madrid’s route to the final included victories over clubs that were, at the time, hardly at the top of their domestic leagues. So, when a fan asked Pique via Twitter what he’d like to see from Thursday’s group stage draw, Pique couldn’t resist a very obvious dig at Real:
Everyone’s got a soft spot in their heart for AS Roma, apart from Lazio supporters of course. The club represents the Eternal City, the Italian capital with a history spanning more than two and a half thousand years. Its standing as one of the birthplaces of Western civilization makes anyone’s three-day visit turn into conversational fodder for the rest of their lifetime.
Porto are in through the qualifying rounds to the Champions League group stage after defeating Roma (who by the end were playing with nine) 3-0, with the second and third goals being scored by Miguel Layun and Tecatito Corona, respectively.
First, Layun made Wojciech Szczesny look like a sillyhead and rounded the Roma keeper for an easy finish.
Leigh Griffiths played like a man possessed (as did Kolo Toure) during Celtic’s 5-2 victory over Hapoel Be’er Sheva in their first-leg Champions League playoff victory at Celtic Park. The Scottish striker almost willed Celtic into the Champions League group stage with two goals and an assist on the night.
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