European champion Barcelona gets Man City in group stage of Women's Champions League
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Two-time defending champion Barcelona will play Manchester City in a Women’s Champions League group after the 16-team draw on Friday.
Barcelona and Man City also will face St. Pölten and Hammarby in the traditional round-robin groups that start on Oct. 8.
Lyon, the record eight-time European champion, landed in a tough group with Wolfsburg, the titleholder in 2013 and ’14, Roma and debutant Galatasaray.
Juventus eliminated Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday in the second qualifying round and was drawn into a group with Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Vålerenga.
Chelsea was top-seeded in a group with Real Madrid, Twente and Celtic.
This is the final season of the group stage in the Women’s Champions League before it adopts the new single-standings format that the men’s competition changed to this season.
Games finish on Dec. 18 and the top two in each group advances to the knockout stage.
Two-leg quarterfinals are in March, the semifinals are in April and the final is at Sporting Lisbon’s stadium on May 25.
The competition has a total prize money fund of at least 24 million euros ($26.8 million) with 11.4 million euros ($12.7 million) shared between the 16 group-stage clubs.
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