Man Utd’s 2023/24 Champions League pot & potential group stage opponents

Man Utd’s 2023/24 Champions League pot & potential group stage opponents

The primary target for Manchester United in Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge was to return to the Champions League.

The Red Devils have historically belonged on the biggest stage and despite not winning the Europa League last season, there is a feeling the team is now good enough to mix it beyond the group stage of the Champions League.

Man Utd ended up finishing third in the Premier League, beating Newcastle to that position after a tight battle between the two clubs.

Teams that finish third are rarely handed a doddle of a Champions League group, as Manchester City may expect in Pot 1. Not all of the pots have been finalised yet as there are qualifying rounds still to be completed, and then historical rankings to apply to the teams that qualify.

Despite that, Man Utd fans can already start designing a very probable outcome from the Champions League group stage draw.

Thanks to their Premier League position and their historical standing in the Champions League, Manchester United will be in Pot 2 for the group stage draw. It’s an incredibly strong range of teams which means there will be more huge games in the group stage.

Given Man City won both the Premier League and the Champions League, they had two Pot 1 places. That puts Feyenoord from the Eredivisie into Pot 1 rather than two and Arsenal in Pot 2.

2023/24 Champions League pot 2

Team

League

UEFA coefficient

Real Madrid

La Liga

121,000

Man Utd

Premier League

104,000

Inter

Serie A

96,000

Borussia Dortmund

Bundesliga

86,000

Atletico Madrid

La Liga

85,000

RB Leipzig

Bundesliga

84,000

Porto

Primeira Liga

81,000

Arsenal

Premier League

76,000

Team

League

Pot

UEFA coefficient

Sevilla

La Liga

1

91,000

Barcelona

La Liga

1

98,000

Napoli

Serie A

1

81,000

Bayern Munich

Bundesliga

1

136,000

PSG

Ligue 1

1

112,000

Benfica

Primeira Liga

1

82,000

Feyenoord

Eredivisie

1

51,000

Shakhtar Donetsk

Ukrainian Premier League

3

63,000

Red Bull Salzburg

Austrian Bundesliga

3

59,000

Milan

Serie A

3

50,000

Lazio

Serie A

3

42,000

Red Star Belgrade

Serbian SuperLiga

3

42,000

Real Sociedad

La Liga

3 or 4

33,000

Celtic

Scottish Premiership

3 or 4

31,000

6 qualifiers

N/A

3 or 4

N/A

Union Berlin

Bundesliga

4

17,000

Lens

Ligue 1

4

12,232

The first thing many fans of a Pot 2 side will look for is the perceived easiest side in Pot 1. There will always be a couple of teams that fans of the biggest sides in Pot 2 would like to be drawn against. Invariably, this is the Portuguese or Dutch champions, or occasionally the Italian title winners. The Europa League holders can occasionally be favourable too.

This season is no different, and Manchester United fans will likely be eyeing up any of Benfica, Feyenoord and Napoli as more favoured opponents. Luciano Spalletti has left the Serie A champions with Rudi Garcia surprisingly named as his replacement. They could still lose both Kim Min-jae and Victor Osimhen too.

You could also include Sevilla in that list, but Man Utd fans are sick of the Andalusian side and would likely want to avoid them completely.

The final two pots for the Champions League have not yet been finalised which means Man Utd fans cannot definitively say what their ideal 2023/24 Champions League group would look like. What is clear is that there are some really good teams further down in the rankings than United.

There are five teams that are currently confirmed to be in Pot 3; Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio, and Red Star Belgrade. The latter is the team that you would choose to face at this stage, partly for the prospect of a trip to Belgrade.

The following teams could end up in either Pot 3 or Pot 4, with the qualifiers set to determine that; Newcastle, Celtic and Real Sociedad. Man Utd cannot face Newcastle anyway and they may not like the idea of playing Real Sociedad again after their meetings in the Europa League last season.

The confirmed Pot 4 sides at the moment are Lens and Union Berlin, both fascinating clubs and stories that would represent a great trip.

Zaļā Josta - Reklāma