Following Thursday’s Champions League draw, we’ve used the Opta Power Rankings to work out the difficulty of each team’s fixtures in the 2024-25 group stage.
The draw for the new-look UEFA Champions League 2024-25 group stage was completed on Thursday, as the 36 teams involved all discovered which eight opponents they would all face.
Premier League contingent Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa all found out which four teams they will take on at home, and which four they will travel to.
Now that the computer in charge of the draw has done its work and we have a big, long list of 144 group stage fixtures to stare at, it’s natural to ask: who has the kindest draw?
That’s where we come in.
We have used Opta’s Power Rankings, which rank every team in world football on the same scale, to give an objective average rating to each team’s set of eight Champions League group stage fixtures for 2024-25.
So, we’ve ranked this season’s 36 Champions League teams by the difficulty of their opponents in the competition in 2024-25. Here’s what we found out:
Which Teams Have the Easiest Champions League Fixtures?
Celtic have been handed the easiest set of Champions League group stage fixtures, having been given the best possible Pot 1 draw – Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig – as well as some of the lowest-ranked sides in the competition in Young Boys and Slovan Bratislava. According to our Power Rankings, Young Boys are ranked as the 137th-best team in the world, and Slovan Bratislava are 154th.
Bayern Munich have been given the second-easiest group stage draw, with their opponents including Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb and Slovan Bratislava. Dortmund and Barcelona have also been given favourable draws according to our rating system.
As for Premier League teams, Champions League debutants Aston Villa have been given about as good a draw as they could have possibly hoped for. As well as getting the chance to play a couple of European giants in Bayern Munich and Juventus, they also have a fair few winnable fixtures, including games against Club Brugge, Celtic and Young Boys.
Manchester City, currently rated as the best team in the world according to our Power Rankings, have been given a draw on the easier side of things, while reigning champions Real Madrid are in a similar position, with their opponents rated as only marginally more difficult.
Which Teams Have the Toughest Champions League Fixtures?
French champions and perennial Champions League underachievers Paris Saint-Germain have the toughest group-stage schedule, with their games including trips to Bayern Munich and Arsenal, as well as home games against Man City and Atlético Madrid.
They also face potentially tricky Pot 3 and Pot 4 games against PSV Eindhoven and Girona, though they play both of those teams at home. Their opponents have an average rating of 92.4 out of 100.
When it comes to Premier League teams, Liverpool have the most difficult set of fixtures, and the third-most difficult overall. They were given one rather favourable Pot 1 draw in being paired with RB Leipzig – one of the pot’s weakest sides – but also host reigning champions Real Madrid and are set to face plenty of tough opponents from the other pots, including Bayer Leverkusen, Milan, PSV Eindhoven, Bologna and Girona.
With five of Arsenal’s fixtures against particularly strong opponents in Inter Milan, PSG, Atalanta, Sporting CP and Monaco, Mikel Arteta’s side have the second-toughest set of fixtures in next season’s Champions League group stage of the Premier League’s contingent.
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