92.1: the number that spells trouble for Lens
Opta has put a number on what Lens fans already feared. 92.1. That is the average rating of RC Lens’ eight opponents in the Champions League league phase. No French club got a worse one.
The idea is simple enough. Opta Power Rankings rate 16,000 teams around the world on the same scale. You average the eight drawn opponents and out pops a difficulty index. The higher the number, the nastier the schedule.
Only Sabah and Slavia Prague have a higher total. Those two are paying for the fact a team cannot draw itself: as the weakest sides in the field, they were always going to get hammered by the draw. Lens have no such excuse. Just a bad draw. Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid sit next at 92.0.
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Manchester City land the toughest English draw
Enzo Maresca will begin his first European campaign in charge of Manchester City without Pep Guardiola on the bench. It has been 11 years since that last happened. He would have wanted something a lot kinder.
The Citizens’ opponents come in at an average of 91.7. Only five of the 36 clubs involved have a harder set of games overall. Barcelona and PSG came out of Pot 1. Napoli, ranked 34th in the world, complete the line-up from Pot 3.
Aston Villa got the same Barcelona-PSG pairing. And from Pot 2, they drew the worst possible statistical mix with Club Brugge and Dortmund. Even so, the Birmingham club will not mind seeing PSG again. In the 2024-25 quarter-finals, Villa won the second leg 3-2 at Villa Park before going out 5-4 on aggregate. They were that close. Unai Emery’s squad has changed plenty since then.
Manchester United are back in the competition for the first time since 2023-24, when they finished fourth in their group. Bayern at home, which is the worst possible Pot 1 draw. Como, the worst possible Pot 4 draw. Sporting Portugal, ranked 21st in the world, and Roma, 22nd, for good measure. RB Leipzig and Villarreal come from Pot 3.
Stuttgart, Inter and Liverpool got off lightly
At the other end of the table, Stuttgart have the softest draw of them all, with an average of 88.9.
Inter follow on 89.5, the best return among the Pot 1 seeds. Last season’s runners-up, and knocked out by Bodoe/Glimt in the play-offs the year before, the Milan club will be aiming to book a straight ticket to the last 16 this time.
Liverpool have the kindest path of the English clubs with an average of 90.0, the ninth easiest draw overall. The Reds landed Atletico and Inter, the two most manageable Pot 1 seeds.
Arsenal’s draw is a strange one. The top end looks nasty, with Bayern away, Real Madrid at home and Dortmund, the strongest Pot 2 side. The lower half looks like a gift: Sabah, ranked 170th in the world, and Slovan Bratislava, 224th, the two weakest qualifiers in the field.
There is still a warning not to get carried away by the numbers. Last season, Arsenal finished top of the league phase with one of the easiest draws. Bayern ended up second with the toughest of the 36.
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