Manchester City Champions League Draw: Everything You Need to Know About UCL Group G, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, and FC Copenhagen
Since Pep Guardiola showed up on the blue side of Manchester in 2015, Manchester City has won almost everything there is to win. Almost everything. A UEFA Champions League trophy is the one piece of hardware that eludes Guardiola at City. The 2022-23 Manchester City Champions League draw is the first step in rectifying that situation.
After losing to Chelsea in the UCL Final in 2021 and choking up a lead in stoppage time of the 2022 semifinal to Real Madrid, Man City comes into the 2022-23 European football tournament with a changed team and a renewed goal to win its first Champions League title.
The Manchester City Champions League draw put the club in Group G along with Sevilla from Spain, Borussia Dortmund from Germany, and FC Copenhagen from Denmark. Here is everything you need to know about Man City’s path to the knockout stage.
UEFA Champions League Group G draw
By virtue of winning the English Premier League last season, Manchester City came out of pot 1 in the Champions League draw. While City avoided lower-seeded clubs like Barcelona, Juventus, and Inter Milan, drawing Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund is no easy task.
The exact UCL schedule isn’t finalized yet, but we do know which weeks the teams will play the fixtures:
- Matchday 1: September 6/7
- Matchday 2: September 13/14
- Matchday 3: October 4/5
- Matchday 4: October 11/12
- Matchday 5: October 25/26
- Matchday 6: November 1/2
One interesting now about scheduling: This year, UCL has TV pairings by country so that two top teams from the same league won’t play on the same day. For example, Man City and Liverpool are a pair, so they will play on opposite days each match week.
In UCL Group G, Sevilla and Atletico Madrid are a pair as are Borussia Dortmund and Bayerm Munich.
Manchester City vs. Sevilla
Sevilla reached the 2022-23 Champions League tournament by finishing fourth in Spain’s La Liga behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Madrid.
The Seville-based club is one of the oldest in Spain and has the distinction of winning more Europa League titles (six) than any other European club.
When City takes on Sevilla, fans will recognize plenty of familiar names. The Sevilla roster includes veterans formerly of big clubs around Europe, the Premier League, and even two of Man City’s own.
Sevilla’s manager is former Spain and Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui. The squad also features Alex Telles (on loan from Manchester United), former Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitić, former Real Madrid playmaker Isco, and former Tottenham winger Erik Lamela.
However, the players who will truly smile on City fans’ faces are Fernando and Jesús Navas.
The 35-year-old Brazilian defensive midfielder who played three seasons in Manchester is back in the middle of Sevilla’s formation after missing the back half of last season with an injury. And Navas, City’s winger who couldn’t score from 2013-17, has been back with his hometown club since 2017. The 36-yar-old is mostly a right back these days.
Manchester City vs. Borussia Dortmund
When the Manchester City Champions League draw showed Borussia Dortmund, that matchup immediately became one of the group stage’s most anticipated matches. That’s because it will be Erling Haaland’s return to the German club he left for big, bad City.
With Haaland last season, Dortmund came in second in the Bundesliga, eight points behind Bayern Munich and five points ahead of Bayern Leverkusen.
The black and yellow German side is world famous for developing young players and managers who leave the fold and become mega stars elsewhere. Managers like Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel and players such as Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mario Götze, Christian Pulisic, and even City’s own Ilkay Gundogan cut their teeth at Dortmund.
The 2022-23 edition of the squad is no different than previous versions. It mixes experienced, battle-tested veterans and young, hungry prospects. When City faces Dortmund this season in the Champions League, they will get a heavy dose of vets Marco Reus, Mats Hummels, Emre Can, and Sebastian Haller, and youngsters like American Gio Reyna and Englishman Jude Bellingham.
Manchester City vs. FC Copenhagen
The team from the capital city of Denmark won the Danish Superliga last season by three points over FC Midtjylland.
Jess Thorup, an experienced head coach who’s managed in Denmark and Belgium for his entire career, manages the Lions. As for the squad, there aren’t any household names on the roster, but the team does include several starters for good national teams like Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Greece.
Chances are, FC Copenhagen will struggle against the big clubs in Group G, but there is always a chance of a miracle.
In the 2010-2011 Champions League, FC Copenhagen came through the qualifying process and landed in Group D with Barcelona, Russia’s Rubin Kazan, and Greece’s Panathinaikos. A sweep of the Russian side combined with a Barcelona draw and 3-1 win over Panathinaikos put Copenhagen into the UCL knockout round (where they promptly lost to Chelsea 4-0 on aggregate).
Predictions for UCL Group G
After the Manchester City Champions League draw produced Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, and FC Copenhagen as opponents, the only conclusion is that City should go through to the round of 16 without much issue.
Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla will be tough matches. Still, City has the German side’s best scorer from last season now, and Sevilla’s starting 11 will likely include two players who aged out of City’s lineup years ago.
The two Dortmund/Sevilla matches will be must-see matches and will likely decide which team goes through in second place. The UCL Group G prediction here is that Borussia Dortmund takes the points and moves on to the knockout phase.
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