Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will come up against each other in this season’s Champions League after Barcelona and Juventus were placed in the same group in Thursday’s draw.
The two heavyweights were drawn in Group G along with Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine, with the fourth team still to be determined.
Messi and Ronaldo will resume the rivalry they developed when the Portuguese superstar was at Real Madrid. Between them they have won 11 of the last 12 Ballons d’Or.
Meanwhile, beaten 2020 finalists Paris Saint-Germain will have a chance for revenge against Manchester United, who ousted the French club in the last 16 two seasons ago.
PSG will also come up against RB Leipzig in Group H. The sides met in last season’s semi-finals in Lisbon in August, with Paris winning 3-0 before losing to Bayern Munich in their first ever final appearance.
English Premier League champions Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2019, will face Ajax as well as Atalanta in Group D.
Holders Bayern will face Atletico Madrid and will also have a short trip across the border to Austria to take on Salzburg in Group A.
The group stage starts on October 20, and all six rounds of games will be crammed into eight weeks in a schedule that is even more packed than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic.
AFP
