Uefa Champions League draw: Leicester will avoid Barcelona and other heavyweights in Pot 1, but tough tests remain

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri. John Sibley / Reuters

Leicester will avoid European heavyweights Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich when the draw for the Champions League is made later — but Claudio Ranieri’s side could still find themselves in a difficult group.

The surprise Premier League champions will be in Pot 1 when the draw takes place in Monaco at 7pm.

The Foxes’ last venture into Europe was 16 years ago, when they were first-round losers to Red Star Belgrade in the Uefa Cup, and since then they have rubbed shoulders with Hereford and Stockport in English football’s third tier.

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Their return to continental action will at the very least last six matches as Ranieri attempts to match ambitions in the Champions League with a domestic title defence.

There are potential pitfalls awaiting them in the draw, most significantly in Pot 2 where last year’s finalists Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Europa League winners Sevilla lurk, while they could also face a ‘Battle of Britain’ against Celtic.

A worst-case scenario would see Leicester draw Atletico, Basle and Celtic — the clubs with the highest Uefa coefficient in their pots — while at best they could draw CSKA Moscow, Borussia Monchengladbach and Rostov.

Leicester will initially avoid the cream of Europe as the latest reward of their stunning Premier League success, but Manchester City and Arsenal are seeded below in Pot 2, making them susceptible to drawing one of the competition’s powerhouses, while Tottenham and Celtic are even more precariously placed in Pot 3 and 4 respectively.

Manchester City confirmed their place in the hat on Wednesday night following a 6-0 aggregate win over Steaua Bucharest, but could immediately bump into Real Madrid, who knocked them out at the semi-final stage last season.

New boss Pep Guardiola also faces the prospect of return trips to former clubs Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

Arsenal face the prospect of another date with Barcelona, who sent them out in the last-16 last season, the sixth successive campaign the north Londoners had gone out at that stage.

The Gunners have, however, progressed out of the initial group stage for the past 16 years and will be favoured to get out of the group no matter who they draw.

Tottenham return to Europe’s premier club competition knowing their hopes of progressing could lean heavily on the draw with the prospect of being pooled with one of the Spanish giants and Dortmund — who dumped them out of the Europa League 5-1 on aggregate in last season’s round-of-16 stage.

Celtic nervously booked their place in the draw with a 5-4 aggregate win over Hapoel Be’er Sheva after negotiating a qualification campaign that started with an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to part-timers Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar.

Boss Brendan Rodgers nonetheless secured a precious return to the group stage, and the huge financial implications that come with it, with the rewards of the big boys of the continent — or a mouth-watering tie against an English club — to re-enliven Celtic Park with a European night the Hoops fans crave.

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