Section:GDN 1N PaGe:54 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 20:49 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Friday 30 Aug ust 2019
(^54) Sport
Football
Champions
League
Our group-
by-group
guide
PSG Club Brugge
Real Madrid Galatasaray
Bayern Munich Olympiakos
Tottenham Red Star Belgrade
The English sides should all
progress but Barcelona are
among the big guns who
may have a stern test on their
hands this autumn, writes
Nick Ames
Group A
Group B
Manchester City Dinamo Zagreb
Shakhtar Donesk Atalanta
Group C
Juventus B Leverkusen
Atlético Madrid L Moscow
Group D
Four years ago, two better iterations
of Real Madrid and Paris Saint-
Germain slugged it out at this
stage. The La Liga side topped the
group and proceeded to win the
tournament; the French champions
fi nished behind them and reached
the last eight. This time around the
creaking giants may feel thankful
that they avoided any of the banana
skins available in the lower pots.
Now that Real Madrid and Gareth
Bale are playing happy families, the
Wales forward’s experience at this
level may yet help give them the
edge; they will need him because
Eden Hazard is not yet fi t and there
are already some doubts about
the new striker from Eintracht
Frankfurt, Luka Jovic.
Not that Paris Saint-Germain,
scarred by three round of 16 exits,
necessarily take the upper hand.
Neymar may be long gone when the
group stage begins but, for all the
forward’s baggage, his departure
would cut a gigantic hole in Thomas
Tuchel’s attacking resources. The
manager will surely not survive
another fl at campaign in Europe.
Club Brugge, who have signed
Simon Mignolet and are courting
Victor Wanyama, will feel they can
pip Galatasaray to third position.
Prediction 1 Real Madrid; 2 PSG;
3 Club Brugge; 4 Galatasaray
Star player Kylian Mbappé (PSG , )
It would take a calamity or two
for Tottenham to be forced into
a repeat of last season’s salvage
operation although, on current
form, they will take nothing for
granted. A much-changed Bayern
side – Rib éry, Robben, Rodríguez,
Hummels out; Coutinho, Perisic,
Pavard and Hern ández in – should
be re-energised and can still rely on
Robert Lewandowski, who scored
his latest hat-trick against Schalke
at the weekend. Should Spurs lose
Christian Eriksen, they may lose the
X factor that puts them in control.
They will remember, too, that Red
Star Belgrade defeated Liverpool last
year. The Serbian champions fancy
a shot at third place and will contest
perhaps group stage’s most roman-
tic clash when they face Bayern, who
they defeated en route to winning the
1990-91 European Cup in one of the
competition’s great contests. It will be
Spurs’ fi rst trip to the Marakana since
a Uefa Cup tie in 1972.
Olympia kos beat an impressive
Krasnodar side in the play-off s this
week and have passed through the
group stage four times before. But,
while the veteran winger Mathieu
Valbuena is a new addition to their
squad, it is hard to see them or Red
Star toppling the front runners.
Prediction 1 Bayern Munich; 2 Spurs;
3 Olympiakos; 4 Red Star Belgrade
Star player P Coutinho (Bayern , )
Manchester City may yet receive
a Champions League ban in
the coming months but their
participation this season has scant
chance of fi nishing early. For the
third consecutive season they will
face Shakhtar Donetsk and, having
won their meetings in 2018-19 by
an aggregate of 9-0, will see little
cause for concern. Shakhtar have
not lost a domestic league match
for over a year but their outstanding
manager, Paulo Fonseca, left for
Roma this summer and it is hard to
see Luis Castro coaxing a dramatic
improvement.
Dinamo Zagreb beat Arsenal
in their most recent group stage
appearance four years ago but lost
their other fi ve games; a battle for
third looks their best bet this time
but the famed Maksimir Stadium
atmosphere may not compensate for
a lack of top-level quality.
The group’s most interesting
side is Atalanta, who will probably
be the nearest approximation to a
challenger for City. Their Champions
League debut was well-earned
and, under Gian Piero Gasperini,
they played some of Europe’s most
vibrant football last season. Martin
Skrtel has been brought in from
Fenerbahce to add a layer of steel.
Prediction 1 Man City; 2 Atalanta; 3
Shakhtar; 4 Dinamo Zagreb
Star player Raheem Sterling (Man C , )
Atl ético certainly have a score
to settle against Juventus, who
overturned a 2-0 fi rst-leg defi cit to
defeat them in last season’s round
of 16. That was entirely owing
to a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick;
Juventus got no further and the
forward, who turns 35 this season,
knows his chances of adding to his
fi ve titles are running out.
Ronaldo will be as important as
ever to Juve, for whom a slightly
curious summer’s business has seen
Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot
arrive on free transfers and Matthijs
de Ligt make his high-profi le move
from Ajax. Gianluigi Buff on is also
back for one last crack but they
may still have to rely on Gonzalo
Higua ín while there are suggestions
Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic
could yet leave. Atl ético, for all the
bad bood of Antoine Griezmann’s
departure, have started their season
with successive 1-0 wins and can
luxuriate in the €126m presence
of Jo ão F élix – not to mention
England’s Kieran Trippier.
Bayer Leverkusen will be
weakened by Julian Brandt’s
departure for Borussia Dortmund;
Lokomotiv Moscow will surely off er
little more than an awkward away
trip or two.
Prediction 1 Juventus; 2 Atlético
Madrid; 3 Bayer L; 4 CSKA Moscow
Star player C Ronaldo (Juventus , )
Concerns over £7m claim for loans to Bury
in CVA prompt insolvency investigation
The Insolvency Practitioners
Association has announced it will
investigate the company voluntary
arrangement organi sed to cut the
debts of Bury , who were expelled
by the English Football League on
Tuesday. The IPA said its decision to
to a company, Mederco, owned by
Stewart Day, the club’s former owner,
which collapsed into administration
in February.
In December, shortly before Day
declared insolvency at Mederco and
several other of his property com-
panies, he sold Bury for £1 to Steve
Dale , the owner in whose tenure the
134-year-old club has been expelled.
In July Dale worked to secure the CVA ,
which off ered creditors 25p for every
pound owed.
The insolvency practitioner super-
vising the CVA, Steven Wiseglass,
included in Bury’s total creditors
a £7.1m debt stated to be owed to
Mederco for loans to the club during
Day’s ownership. Creditors were told
that this debt had been bought by RCR
Holdings Ltd, a company formed two
days before the meeting to consider
the CVA. The scale of the £7.1m debt
was crucial to the CVA being passed.
Last week the sole owner and
director of RCR Holdings, Kris
Richards, 41, confi rmed to BBC Radio
Manchester that he is the partner of
Steve Dale’s daughter.
The Mederco administrator , the
fi rm Leonard Curtis, had told that
company’s creditors that it could not
establish how much money, if any, was
owed by Bury. It sold RCR the potential
claim to any debt for £70,000.
Dale told the Guardian last week
David Conn
“consider the operation of the CVA”,
followed concerns expressed in the
Guardian by the Bury North MP, James
Frith, and the Football Supporters’
Association.
Frith has said he assumes it will also
be “standard practice” that the Insol-
vency Service, a government agency,
will investigate. Frith’s and the FSA’s
concerns centre on a £7m claim admit-
ted into the CVA as a debt owed by Bury
▲ Bury are ‘strugg ling to comprehend’
their expulsion from the EFL
Jürgen Klopp said this
Champions League
campaign could be
tougher than ever
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