Champions League group stage: Chelsea drawn against Ajax, Valencia, Lille

Chelsea are back in the Champions League, and that’s great for every sporting and financial reason imaginable. But now the hard work begins and the reality of the task at hand starts setting in. Today’s draw for the group stages in Monaco, did not do the Blues too many favors, but landed us in a group from where we will certainly be expected to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Amid the usual amount of pomp and circumstance, ball swirling, and boring speeches, the real action was in the opening of the lots and the drawing of fates, conducted by none other than technical director advisor Petr Čech, as well as Wesley Sneijder picking the balls out of the bowls. Chelsea were last out of the bowl from Pot 1.

We were then joined by Ajax Amsterdam from Pot 2, Valencia from Pot 3, and Lille from Pot 4.

Not the worst. Chelsea have surprisingly never played Ajax or Lille in a competitive fixture, but we’re unbeaten against Valencia in six games (including during the group stages of the 2011-12 Champions League)

The exact order and timing (Tuesday or Wednesday) of the fixtures will be determined shortly, but we do know the match-day schedule already. The first game is just three weeks away!

Wolves (A) | CL MD1 (Sep 17) | Liverpool (H)
Brighton (H) | CL MD2 (Oct 1) | Southampton (A)
Newcastle (H) | CL MD3 (Oct 22) | Burnley (A)
Watford (A) | CL MD4 (Nov 5) | Crystal Palace (H)
Man City (A) | CL MD5 (Nov 26) | West Ham (H)
Everton (A) | CL MD6 (Dec 10) | Bournemouth (H)

The full results of the 2019-20 Champions League group stage draw, including the Group F Group of Death is as follows:

Group A: PSG, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray

Group B: Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade

Group C: Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta

Group D: Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow

Group E: Liverpool, Napoli, RB Salzburg, Genk

Group F: Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Slavia Prague

Group G: Zenit St Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig

Group H: CHELSEA, Ajax Amsterdam, Valencia, Lille