UEFA Champions League holders Real Madrid will face Borussia Dortmund, Sporting and Legia in the group stage of the 2016-17 edition of the competition following Thursday's draw in Monaco.Premier League champions Leicester City will make their debut in UEFA's elite competition and were included in Pot 1they drew FC Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagenwhile Arsenal face a tricky group that contains Paris Saint-Germain, FC Basel and Ludogorets.Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will take on Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic, and Tottenham Hotspur face CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen and Monaco.As usual, the 32 teams have been drawn into eight groups of four, with clubs unable to face teams from the same nation until the knockout phase.Here are this year's groups:The fixtures will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with matchdays being played on September 13-14 and again on September 27-28, October 18-19, November 1, 2, 22 and 23, and finally on December 6-7. Real Madrid Pursue 12th European Cup TitleLos Blancos beat Atletico Madrid on penalties in May to seal the club's 11th Champions League and European Cup triumph, their second win in three years.In the Champions League era, no team has successfully defended their title, so Real will be hoping to make history in that regard.That will largely depend on who Real face come the knockout stage, but first they must traverse their group with the aim of earning a favourable draw in the round of 16.Borussia Dortmund have the ability to pose them problems, but overall, Real should be confident of topping the group.Meanwhile, Claudio Ranieri's Leicester will be making their first appearance in the competition following their incredible title win last year.N'Golo Kante has been a huge loss for the Foxes, but with Jamie Vardy, Ahmed Musa, Riyad Mahrez and Demarai Gray in the side, Leicester still have plenty of pace and attacking power with which to punish their opponents.In a group with Porto, Club Brugge and Copenhagen, Leicester have a great chance to advance.All too often in recent years, Arsenal have struggled in the group stageoften unnecessarily.In the last six seasons, the Gunners have exited at the last-16 stage, and on five of those occasions, they had finished second in their grouptwo of which saw them finish behind Schalke and Shakhtar Donetsk.To give themselves the best chance of making the quarter-finals and beyond, they need a strong performance in the group stage this year and finish top. However, with PSG also in the group, it will be a difficult ask.Since making their Champions League debut in 2011, Manchester City have made a habit of drawing tricky groups.The Citizens have made the knockout phase the last three years in a row, though, and last year made it to the semi-finals.After failing to lift the trophy in his three seasons with Bayern Munich, manager Guardiola will be hoping to break his run of four semi-final failures in his last four Champions League campaigns.First, he must navigate a group containing Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic.As for Tottenham, aside from a brief foray into the competition in 2010, their European experience has typically been confined to the UEFA Europa League.With CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen awaiting, the Lilywhites will need to be ready for a higher calibre of opposition.Spurs have plenty of quality players themselves, however, so they deserve their opponents' respectHarry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen can cause problems for any side.All in all, it should make for a fascinating group stage.
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