The Champions League draw has been made, and this year's group of death features... Manchester City. Again.
The unluckiest team in the Champions League, certainly from an English point of view, have been cursed again and landed with a group featuring Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic in this season's competition.
Although perhaps it was inevitable that new manager Pep Guardiola would find himself up against Barcelona, the club where he made his name, he probably could have done without a Battle of Britain clash with Celtic and another showdown with Monchengladbach.
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Last season the City recovered from a bad start to top a group featuring Juventus, Sevilla and Monchengladbach and the time before that it was Bayern Munich, Roma and CSKA Moscow. Still, it could have been worse for City when the draw was made on Thursday evening in Monaco: at least there was no repeat of 2012 when they found themselves in the group of Painful Death, along with Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Real Madrid, at the time the respective champions of Germany, Holland and Spain.
"It is not a nightmare draw because we are in a wonderful competition," mused City's director of football, Txiki Begiristain. "But it is a very tough group."
The draw is indeed a formidable challenge for Guardiola in his first season in charge of City, though if there's one man who can rise to it, it must surely be the Spaniard. Barcelona's most successful manager, Guardiola guided the Catalan club to Champions League titles in 2009 and 2011, and then took Bayern to the 2015 semi-finals where they lost to Barca.
But if Guardiola has cause to feel glum this morning, there are reasons to be cheerful for Leicester City, making their bow in Europe's showpiece competition after their stunning Premier League success last season. The Foxes - whose last taste of Europe was a first round defeat to Red Star Belgrade in the 2000 Uefa Cup - face Porto, Club Brugge and FC Copenhagen in their debut campaign and will fancy their chances of progressing to the second round.
"Last season was wonderful but I want more," said manager Claudio Ranieri on hearing the draw. "Now we are in the Champions League and we have another wonderful opportunity to show our quality. We know we have three tough away games but, when we arrive at our stadium, that is when I know we can show something special."
Arsenal, about to embark on their 19th consecutive Champions League group stage, will also be quietly confident of reaching the last 16. Even taking into account their poor start to the season and the question marks about their defence and attack, the Gunners should have the wherewithal to make it out of a group containing Paris Saint-Germain, Basel and Ludogorets, who in 2014 held Liverpool to a 2-2 draw in Bulgaria.
Tottenham could have fared worse in drawing Monaco, CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen although all those teams have the potential to upset the Lilywhites.
Champions League group stage draw:
Group A:
Paris St-Germain (France), Arsenal (England), Basel (Switzerland), Ludogorets (Bulgaria).
Group B:
Benfica (Portugal), Napoli (Italy), Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine), Besiktas (Turkey).
Group C:
Barcelona (Spain), Manchester City (England), Borussia Monchengladbach (Germany), Celtic (Scotland).
Group D:
Bayern Munich (Germany), Atletico Madrid (Spain), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Rostov (Russia).
Group E:
CSKA Moscow (Russia), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Tottenham (England), Monaco (France).
Group F:
Real Madrid (Spain), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Legia Warsaw (Poland).
Group G:
Leicester City (England), Porto (Portugal), Club Brugge (Belgium), FC Copenhagen (Denmark).
Group H:
Juventus (Italy), Sevilla (Spain), Lyon (France), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia).
Champions League key match dates:
First round of group matches: 13-14 September
Final round of group matches: 6-7 December
Round of 16, first leg: 14-15/21-22 February
Round of 16, second leg: 7-8/14-15 March
Quarter-finals, first leg: 11-12 April
Quarter-finals, second leg: 18-19 April
Semi-finals, first leg: 2-3 May
Semi-finals, second leg: 9-10 May
Final (Cardiff): 3 June
