FOOTBALL: Newcastle in group of death as United face Kane again

Emmanuel Alfred

Newcastle United’s return to the Champions League after 20 years will be coming with a lot of difficulty as they have been drawn into the “group of death.

The Magpies who finished fourth last season will be tackling French champions, Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and 7-time winners AC Milan in the group stage.

Former champions, Manchester United will be up against familiar foe Harry Kane when they play a familiar opposition Bayern Munich, while treble winner Manchester City are going to face RB Leipzig again.

Premier League runners up Arsenal, who will be returning after 7 years have been handed a fairly comfortable group with Sevilla as opponents.

Here are the group stage draw in full:

Group A: Bayern Munich, MANCHESTER UNITED, FC Copenhagen, Galatasaray

Group B: Sevilla, ARSENAL, PSV Eindhoven, RC Lens

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga, Union Berlin

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan, Salzburg, Real Sociedad

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, CELTIC

Group F: Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, NEWCASTLE

Group G: MANCHESTER CITY, RB Leipzig, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys

Group H: Barcelona, Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Royal Antwerp

The group stages will run from 19 September to 13 December, with the final at Wembley on 1 June.

City wins big at the UEFA awards

The 2022/2023 awards was carried out with Manchester City duo of Pep Guadiola and Erling Haaland carting home the Coach of the year and player of the year award respectively.

Haaland’s exploits of winning the golden boot for last season with 12 goals saw him winning the conveted award.

This caps off a memorable week for the Norwegian forward who already won the Premier League player of the year award.

Guadiola also added the award to earlier winning the Premier League coach of the year award for his treble winning season.