The seeding is based on the UEFA Coefficient which describes the club’s history in Europe. This number however does not describe their current level of strength, ref. Figure 1. In this presentation we have used the OPTA Power Rang when analysing the current strength.
It is obvious that you would like to avoid Manchester City and Real Madrid from Pot 1, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen from Pot 2, Sporting CP Lisbon and PSV Eindhoven from Pot 3 and AS Monaco and VfB Stuttgart from Pot 4.
Instead, you would prefer to draw Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys, Sturm Graz and Slovan Bratislava.
Now after the draw it is possible to calculate the combined strength of the eight opponents for each of the 36 clubs. PSV drew 4 of the clubs desired to avoid and none in the second category.
Celtic drew none in the first category and 5 in the second!
