GENEVA (AP) – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will face each other for the first time at the Champions League organization level, and enthusiasts may be able to look again.
Messi’s Barcelona was taken out of the boat of organizations occupying second place in the organization where Ronaldo’s Juventus were already more sensitive to qualifying, and then the organization ended up through Dynamo Kyiv and Ferencvaros.
Ronaldo, 35, and Messi, 33, had a nine-year-old rivalry in the Spanish league when Portuguese star Real Madrid, however, may never face off as early in the Champions League as clubs in the same country. are separated in the draw.
They faced off in the 2009 final, when Messi scored when Barcelona beat Ronaldo’s Manchester United 2-0.
Match dates in Turin and Barcelona will be shown until Friday, but there may only be enthusiasts available to watch high-profile matchups.
UEFA said stadiums can be occupied to 30% of their capacity for all matches it organizes, adding champions league, Europa League and national team matches; however, local access will be allowed and local government will have final approval.
Spectators have not been allowed to enter the stadiums of the last stages of the Champions League or Europa League in August, nor of the qualifying rounds of recent weeks.
Juventus and Barcelona teamed up at the organization level of the 2017–18 season, Ronaldo’s last in Madrid when he helped Real win a fourth Champions League name in five seasons. Messi scored twice in a 3-0 home win over Juventus, before a 0-0 draw in Italy.
The stellar clash of superstars still left room for intriguing draws in all seven groups.
The protective champion, Bayern Munich, joined through Atletico Madrid, Salzburg and Lokomotiv Moscow.
Paris Saint-Germain, runner-up last season, has discovered Manchester United — against which they lost by a debatable penalty overdue in the 16-in-2019 circular — and Leipzig, which they beat in the August semi-finals. Newcomer Istanbul Baak-ehir is also part of this group.
Liverpool, the 2019 champion, is an organization of organizations known for playing open-attack football: Ajax, Atalanta and Midtjylland of Denmark, a Champions League debutant.
Liverpool, six-time European champion and four-time Ajax winner have faced off once in the competition in 1966. Ajax eliminated Liverpool at the circular moment of the European Cup following a 5–1 win in the first leg in Amsterdam.
Real Madrid, 13 times world champion, leads an organization with mythical European hisisms, adding Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Borussia Monchengladbach.
Sevilla and Chelsea, winners of the last two Europa League titles, will face two newcomers to the Champions League, Krasnodar and Rennes. In its 119-year history, Rennes has never played a competitive match against its 3 organizational rivals.
Manchester City, for their first title, was seeded at one point in an organization with two former winners, Porto and Marseille, plus Olympiakos.
Zenit st. Petersburg, the most sensible seed as champion of the Russian league, will be measured against Borussia Dortmund, Lazio and Club Bruges.
The organization level begins on October 20 and is scheduled to run until December 9. Matches would possibly be reached until January 28, if necessary, postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Prior to the draw, Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski was named Europe’s most productive player last season and Bayern’s Hansi Flick won the training award.
The women’s award went to Pernille Harder, the Danish forward who helped Wolfsburg triumph in the Champions League final. The German club lost to Lyon, whose coach Jean-Luc Vasseur won the women’s football award.
The rite began with the awarding of the UEFA Presidential Prize to the wonderful Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast and Chelsea.
___
More AP football: https://apnews. com/Soccer and https://twitter. com/AP_Sports