Real Madrid dodged the toughest rivals that could touch them in the hype and are clear favorites to be first in the group in a competition in which they are defending the title. Their rivals in this phase will be Leipzig (German Cup champions), Shakhtar Donetz, who will play their matches in Warsaw, at Legia, as Ukraine is at war, and Celtic Glasgow, a historic run down.
Leipzig is aiming for second place in the group, although at the moment they do not know victory in the Bundesliga, where they have drawn two and one defeat and are eleventh in the table. This summer it has been reinforced with the return of Timo Werner and it retains its other two stars, the Spanish Dani Olmo and Nkunku, who has been linked as a possible Madrid signing.
Regarding last season, Leipzig has lost Mukiele (PSG), Angeliño (Hoffenheim) and Adams (Leeds) and has been reinforced with Raum (Hoffenheim) and Schlager (Wolfsburg), in addition to the aforementioned return of Werner, who did not He finished being a starter at Chelsea, although he did win the penultimate Champions League there. In the Champions League of the pandemic played in Portugal in August 2020, they eliminated Atlético in the quarterfinals in a single match.
Of Shakhtar it can be said that he will have the general sympathy but he has lost his legion of Brazilians. It is the third year in a row that Madrid have been in the group stage and two years ago they won in Valdebebas. His most recognized players are goalkeeper Trubin, center back Matvienko, captain Stepanenko and winger Mudryk.
Shakhtar started their league in Ukraine last weekend. He played in kyiv against Metalist, where he did not go beyond a goalless draw, showing a lack of punch. His coach is Igor Jovicevic, who usually lines up a 4-3-3, with very open wingers and a clear offensive vocation.
Glasgow Celtic did not participate in this group stage since the 2017-18 season. It is a somewhat exotic team now, with four Japanese in its squad (two of them titles, Maeda and Furuhashi). His coach for a year has been the Greek-Australian Ante Postocoglou.
This Celtic has better ball output and more technical quality than other years. He does not play so much with the ball and looking for the ball in the rebound, but he is weighed down by the lack of competitiveness in the Scottish league, where he only has Rangers as a major rival. It is assumed that he will fight with Shakhtar to enter the Europa League. Anything else would be a surprise.
