Man Utd's 2023/24 Champions League pot & potential group stage opponents
- Man Utd are back in the Champions League after brief absence
- Erik ten Hag reached semi-finals of this competition with Ajax in 2019
- Red Devils will be drawn from Pot 2 in Friday's draw
By Euan Burns
The primary target for Manchester United in Erik ten Hag's first season in charge was to return to the Champions League.
The Red Devils have historically belonged on the biggest stage and despite not winning the Europa League last season, there is a feeling the team is now good enough to mix it beyond the group stage of the Champions League.
Man Utd ended up finishing third in the Premier League, beating Newcastle to that position after a tight battle between the two clubs.
Teams that finish third are rarely handed a doddle of a Champions League group, as Manchester City may expect in Pot 1. Not all of the pots have been finalised yet as there are qualifying rounds still to be completed, and then historical rankings to apply to the teams that qualify.
Despite that, Man Utd fans can already start designing a very probable outcome from the Champions League group stage draw.
What 2023/24 Champions League pot are Man Utd in?
Thanks to their Premier League position and their historical standing in the Champions League, Manchester United will be in Pot 2 for the group stage draw. It's an incredibly strong range of teams which means there will be more huge games in the group stage.
Given Man City won both the Premier League and the Champions League, they had two Pot 1 places. That puts Feyenoord from the Eredivisie into Pot 1 rather than two and Arsenal in Pot 2.
2023/24 Champions League pot 2
Team | League | UEFA coefficient |
|---|---|---|
Real Madrid | La Liga | 121.000 |
Man Utd | Premier League | 104.000 |
Inter | Serie A | 96.000 |
Borussia Dortmund | Bundesliga | 86.000 |
Atletico Madrid | La Liga | 85.000 |
RB Leipzig | Bundesliga | 84.000 |
Porto | Primeira Liga | 81.000 |
Arsenal | Premier League | 76.000 |
Man Utd's 2023/24 potential Champions League group stage opponents
Team | League | Pot | UEFA Coefficient |
|---|---|---|---|
Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | 1 | 136.000 |
Paris Saint-Germain | Ligue 1 | 1 | 112.000 |
Barcelona | La Liga | 1 | 98.000 |
Sevilla | La Liga | 1 | 91.000 |
Benfica | Primeira Liga | 1 | 82.000 |
Napoli | Serie A | 1 | 81.000 |
Feyenoord | Eredivisie | 1 | 51.000 |
Shakhtar Donetsk | Ukrainian Premier League | 3 | 63.000 |
Red Bull Salzburg | Austrian Bundesliga | 3 | 59.000 |
Milan | Serie A | 3 | 50.000 |
Braga | Primeira Liga | 3 | 44.000 |
PSV | Eredivisie | 3 | 43.000 |
Lazio | Serie A | 3 | 42.000 |
Red Star Belgrade | Serbian SuperLiga | 3 | 42.000 |
Copenhagen | Danish Superliga | 3 | 40.500 |
Young Boys | Swiss Super League | 4 | 34.500 |
Real Sociedad | La Liga | 4 | 33.000 |
Galatasaray | Turkish SuperLig | 4 | 31.500 |
Celtic | Scottish Premiership | 4 | 31.000 |
Union Berlin | Bundesliga | 4 | 17.000 |
Royal Antwerp | Belgian Pro League | 4 | 17.000 |
Lens | Ligue 1 | 4 | 12.232 |
The first thing many fans of a Pot 2 side will look for is the perceived easiest side in Pot 1. There will always be a couple of teams that fans of the biggest sides in Pot 2 would like to be drawn against. Invariably, this is the Portuguese or Dutch champions, or occasionally the Italian title winners. The Europa League holders can occasionally be favourable too.
This season is no different and Manchester United fans will likely be eyeing up any of Benfica, Feyenoord and Napoli as more favoured opponents. Luciano Spalletti has left the Serie A champions with Rudi Garcia surprisingly named as his replacement.
You could also include Sevilla in that list, but Man Utd fans are sick of the Andalusian side and would likely want to avoid them completely.
The final two pots for the Champions League have not yet been finalised which means Man Utd fans cannot definitively say what their ideal 2023/24 Champions League group would look like. What is clear is that there are some really good teams further down in the rankings than United.
Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, Copenhagen, PSV and Braga are the confirmed teams in Pot 3, There aren't too many teams to fear here and United might fancy being drawn against the clubs with the highest UEFA coefficient (Shakhtar and Salzburg) as opposed to Milan or Lazio.
Lens and Union Berlin would be fascinating opponents in Pot 4, with the latter making their bow in the competition. Lens, meanwhile, haven't appeared in the Champions League since 1997. United twice faced off against Real Sociedad last season and are potential opponents again in 2023/24, while an away trip to Celtic Park would be quite the occasion for both sets of supporters.
Man Utd's toughest potential 2023/24 Champions League group (according to UEFA coefficient)
Team | League | Pot | UEFA Coefficient |
|---|---|---|---|
Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | 1 | 136.000 |
Shakhtar Donetsk | Ukrainian Premier League | 3 | 63.000 |
Young Boys | Swiss Super League | 4 | 34.500 |
There are a few teams United will want to avoid from Pot 1, but none more so than Bayern Munich. While the Germans merely stumbled to the Bundesliga title last season, the addition of Harry Kane has seen them regain their juggernaut status and they're regarded as one of the favourites to win the competition.
These two sides have met several times over the years, most memorably in the 1999 final, with United scoring just two victories over the Bavarians in 11 encounters.
Shakhtar boast the highest UEFA coefficient in Pot 3, but United supporters would much rather face the Ukrainian side than Serie A tandem Milan and Lazio.
Young Boys have snuck into Pot 4 following Wednesday's results, and they've usurped Real Sociedad as the club boasting the highest coefficient. United took on the Swiss outfit during the 2021/22 group stage, tasting defeat in Switzerland before drawing the reverse fixture.
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