The 2020/21 Champions League gets underway later this month with the group stage draw having taken place on Thursday last week and clubs knowing who they will face in the opening stages of the competition.
Three-time winners Real Madrid were beaten in both legs of round 16 of the tournament last year by Premier League side Manchester City and will be hoping to improve on that this time around. However, first they must progress past the group stages where Zidane’s side have been drawn against Inter Milan, Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Monchengladbach in Group B.
All the groups for the 2020/21 Champions League Group Stage can be found below.
2020/21 Champions League Groups
Group A: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Red Bull Salzberg, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group B: Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Borussia Monchengladbach
Group C: FC Porto, Manchester City, Olympiakos, 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 Kyiv, Ferencvaros
Group H: Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, RB Leipzig, Istanbul Basaksehir
What Are Real Madrid’s Chances?
Bookies have Los Blancos as fifth favourites to win the 2020/21 Champions League behind last years winners Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Liverpool and PSG. Most bookmakers are offering odds of around 12/1 for Madrid to claim their fourth trophy and we’re expecting several betting offers available in the run-up to the tournament later this month. Many of the bookmakers which take bets on the Champions League also have online casinos such as the ones found on onlinecasinosnoop.com from which there are further bonuses to be claimed.
There are some concerns that preparation hasn’t been made for the upcoming tournament as transfer deadline day has now past and for the first time in 40 years, Real Madrid have not signed a single player.
Zidane has also seen a number of players leave the club, either on loan or on a permanent basis, some of which include Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Sergio Reguilon, Reinier Jesus, Achraf Hakimi, Takefusa Kubo, Brahim Diaz, Dani Ceballos and Borja Mayoral.
Shortly after Real Madrid were confirmed champions of La Liga in July, president Florentino Perez announced that due to the financial impact of the current worldwide pandemic, no big-money transfers would be made in the summer.
Manchester United’s Donny van de Beek was due to join the club from Dutch club Ajax but that deal was cancelled by Madrid following Luka Modric’s decision to remain at the club.
The group stages of the 2020/21 Champions League are set to kick-off on Tuesday 20th October and will be concluded on Wednesday 9th December after which the knock-out stages will begin. The Champions League Final is scheduled for Saturday 29th May 2021 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
