The Champions League draw has been made and we simply can’t wait for it to start.

Cristiano Ronaldo will take on Lionel Messi, Manchester United face Paris-Saint Germain while Liverpool and Atalanta is one hell of a match-up.

Meanwhile, Chelsea face Sevilla as well as a tricky trip to Russia to face Krasnodar.

But Manchester City got away fairly lightly as they face comfortable-looking visits to Porto, Olympiakos and Marseille.

Pep Guardiola’s side will be looking to make amends for their quarter-final loss to Lyon last season and finally conquer Europe.

Football fans were complaining that City always get easy draws but is that really the case?

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Well, not quite according to a study using ELO ratings.

ELO ratings measure the strength of a team with stronger teams earning higher ELO rating.

Using teams who have made at least three appearances in the Champions League in the last five seasons, an average group ELO rating have been calculated.

And, believe it or not, Man City haven’t been handed the easiest draws. In fact, there are EIGHT clubs who have been handed tougher draws than City in the last five years.

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The luckiest side when it comes to group draws? Sevilla.

While they’ve been busy winning the Europa League in recent years, they faced Juventus, Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League group in 2016/17. A year later, they had Liverpool, Maribor and Spartak Moscow. Meanwhile, this season, they’re in with Chelsea, Krasnodar and Rennes.

Interestingly, Liverpool have been handed the second easiest groups in the last five years - although they’ve only been in it four times.

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Check out their last five Champions League groups below:

2017/18 group:

Sevilla
Spartak Moscow
Maribor

2018/19 group:

Paris Saint-Germain
Napoli
Red Star Belgrade

2019/20 group:

Napoli
Red Bull Salzburg
Genk

2020/21 group:

Ajax
Atalanta
Midtjylland

Luckily Liverpool…

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Porto, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Benfica all have easier groups than Man City in the last five seasons.

But who has been given the hardest in that time? Poor old Inter Milan.

They’ve only been in the competition in the last three seasons and their groups have looked like:

2018/19

Barcelona
Tottenham
PSV

2019/20

Slavia Prague
Barcelona
Borussia Dortmund

2020/21

Real Madrid
Shakhtar Donetsk
Borussia Monchengladbach

Ouch.

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