Who could Manchester United draw in the Champions League?

Tomorrow is the eagerly anticipated Champions League group stage draw, and — need we remind you, ladies and gents; Arsenal supporters — Manchester United are in it. We’ve been prepping at tBB towers by taking a leaf from our friends over at Cartilage Free Captain, who have been using this nifty tool to work out exactly how bad things could get if the draw goes wrong. It’s worth remembering that today’s playoff matches could trigger changes in Pots 3 and 4, though Pots 1 and 2 — United being in the latter — are set.

You can see that in an ideal world, United would be drawn in a group that looks something like Spartak Moscow, Basel and Maribor; in a worst case scenario — remembering teams from the same country can’t be drawn together — it could be Real Madrid, Napoli and RB Leipzig. Gulp. Anyway, just for fun we simulated an entire draw, and this was how it came out:

We’ve got to say, we’re quite disappointed that’s not real. Sure, playing Juve wouldn’t be much fun, but we should have more than enough to comfortably see off Beşiktaş and CSKA Moscow. And look at some of those other groups! Pretty much all of the other English teams have nightmarish draws, with Spurs’ Group F perhaps the worst of all.

Anyway, this has certainly whet our appetite for United’s (in)glorious return to Europe’s Premier Club Competition™, and for tomorrow’s draw. If you have a go at simulating your own draw, post it in the comments below.