Champions League group stage draw: Liverpool and Manchester United face tough tasks

Champions League
(Image credit: PA)

The Champions League 2020/21 is underway, following the group stage draw: now we know who each team will be taking on in order to reach next year's knockout stages.

The first round of group stage games will take place on Tuesday, October 20 and Wednesday, October 21.

Manchester United may face the toughest task of the English clubs, with PSG, RB Leipzig and İstanbul Başakşehir in their group, though Liverpool don't have it easy either: they take on Ajax, Atalanta and Midtjylland.

Manchester City may be bullish about their chances, with Porto, Olympiacos and Marseille making up their group, while Chelsea fans could be equally confident about beating Sevilla, Krasnodar and Rennes.

Elsewhere, Juventus and Barcelona featuring in the same group means revisiting the Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi rivalry, and Real Madrid vs Inter Milan could be a tasty tie.

Every game this season will be shown exclusively on BT Sport – and if you don't have a BT Sport subscription, you can get an online monthly pass for £25 here.

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This season's final will take place in Istanbul on Saturday, May 29, 2021. It should have been the venue for last season's final, before the coronavirus pandemic meant the competition resumed as a straight knockout tournament in Portugal in July.

Bayern Munich triumphed then – beating PSG in a closely-fought final. However, it was the 8-2 dispatching of Barcelona in the quarter-finals that will last in the memory the longest.

Bayern now face their biggest challenge yet – only Real Madrid have won consecutive Champions League titles since the competition's revamp in 1992. So who will triumph in 2021? This is how the group stage looks...

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Group A

Bayern Munich

Atletico Madrid

Red Bull Salzburg

Lokomotiv Moscow

Group B

Real Madrid

Shakhtar Donetsk

Inter Milan

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Group C

Porto

Manchester City

Olympiacos

Marseille

Group D

Liverpool

Ajax

Atalanta

Midtjylland

Group E

Sevilla

Chelsea

Krasnodar

Rennes

Group F

Zenit St. Petersburg

Borussia Dortmund

Lazio

Club Brugge

Group G

Juventus

Barcelona

Dynamo Kiev

Ferencváros

Group H

PSG

Manchester United

RB Leipzig

İstanbul Başakşehir

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