SIX Premier League clubs face a Champions League horror draw with each team guaranteed TWO European giants
This season three out of four English clubs automatically qualified for the Round of 16 stage – Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
But Prem clubs may find things more difficult next season, depending on the draw.
Three English teams are in Pot 1, which is based on their Uefa coefficient score – Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
They will each have to play two fellow Pot 1 teams, and cannot face a club from the same country.
The toughest league phase opponents from Pot 1 would perhaps be Real Madrid and Barcelona, though Paris Saint-Germain made this year’s final.
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According to the coefficient rankings, the two best non-English teams in Pot 1 are Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Every team in the league phase must face TWO teams from each pot – so any one of Liverpool, City, Arsenal, Newcastle, Chelsea or Spurs could face a trip to the Bernabeu and to Munich.
Pot 2 also throws up some potentially tricky opponents for Prem teams; clubs with European pedigree such as Juventus and Atletico Madrid could be drawn or those with more recent success, such as Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta.
While Pot 3 includes recently crowned Serie A champions Napoli, along with Sporting and PSV Eindhoven.
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Pot 4, which Newcastle belong to as the sole English club, could throw up Turkish champions Galatasary and the kings of Scots, Celtic, although they will need to progress through the qualifying stages.
Non-English clubs could face an even tougher draw however, playing two Prem teams each because of the rules preventing sides playing their fellow compatriots.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
