Quite a lucky draw for Napoli, which takes the non-irresistible Ukrainians of Shakhtar Donetsk among the top seeds; good also for Juventus who find Barcelona again after eliminating the Catalans in the quarter-finals of the last edition; a little less for Rome, which however draws the Cinderella Qarabag as fourth. Thus decreed the urn of Montecarlo, which after a long time found three Italian teams at the starting line of the Champions League: Juve started as seeded, while Napoli and Roma from the third pot and in the end, considering the possible joints, for for all three there was the serious risk of an iron group.
Danger actually escaped: Rome draws one of the toughest, the C, the one with Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, however the level of the group drops considerably with the presence of the Azeris of Qarabag, in their first participation in the top European club competition. Juve can also be said to be satisfied, which could only draw a big player and took on one of the least in form at the moment, Barcelona orphaned by Neymar, then avoiding the loose cannons of the third and fourth brackets, from which two objectively affordable teams emerged such as Olympiacos and Sporting Lisbon.
On the other hand, it went more than well for Napoli, it being understood that in a competition of this level no team should be underestimated: Sarri's men risked the iron group despite an excellent ranking (the first club excluded from the second tier, where it would return virtually without Platini formula which assigns the national champions to the first tier, regardless of the score), and instead fate has returned something by reserving Guardiola's very strong City, against whom a fascinating challenge between two similar ways of playing football is foreseen, but also Shakhtar Donetsk and Feyenoord.
