In the UEFA Champions League group stage draw held on Thursday in Istanbul, Bayern Munich and Robert Lewandowski’s Barcelona were drawn in the same area.
At the same time, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund put Erling Haaland against his previous team. Inter Milan, Viktoria Plzen, and Bayern will compete in Group C together with Inter Milan.
Viktoria Plzen is the reigning Czech champion. Barcelona fell to Bayern 3-0 twice last season as they were ousted in the group stage, while the Catalans also lost 8-2 to the Germans in a one-off quarterfinal in Lisbon in 2020.
Lewandowski, 34, left Bayern after eight years and scored 344 goals for Barcelona during the close season for a sum that might top 50 million euros ($49.9m).
Haaland moved from Dortmund to the Premier League champions City in the off-season. In Group G, those groups will also include FC Copenhagen, the defending Danish champion, and Sevilla.
Liverpool, the runner-up from the previous season, will compete in Group A with Ajax, Napoli, and Rangers. In contrast, Real Madrid, the current champions, will compete in Group F with Celtic, RB Leipzig, and Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Paris Saint-Germain, among the favorites to win a trophy that has eluded them since the Qatari acquisition more than ten years ago, will compete in Group H with Benfica, Maccabi Haifa, and Juventus.
In Group E, which includes Serie A champions AC Milan, Red Bull Salzburg, and Dinamo Zagreb, the 2021 champion Chelsea will compete.
Tottenham Hotspur will compete in Group D, which includes Eintracht Frankfurt, Sporting Lisbon, and Marseille.
Group B, which also included Bayer Leverkusen and the Belgian champions Club Brugge, Porto, and Atletico Madrid, would be facing off for the second consecutive season.
The first round of games for this season’s group stage will take place on September 6 and 7.
For UEFA to conclude the group stage before the World Cup kicks off on November 20, all six matchdays will be played over nine weeks, ending on November 1 and 2.
