five facts about chelsea champios league draw chelsea football club news.
five facts about chelsea champios league draw. chelsea,premier league,chelsea fc,chelsea highlights,chelsea football club news,champions league draw,champions league,uefa champions league,russia,france,football,sevilla,la liga,atletico madrid,uefa<br />Chelsea have been grouped with Sevilla, Krasnodar and Rennes in the first stage of this season’s Champions League.<br />Here are some interesting things to look out for following yesterday's Champions League draw, which placed Chelsea in Group E with French newcomers Rennes, Russian side Krasnodar and Europa League holders Sevilla.<br />Unfamiliar opponents<br />For the first time when we met Roma, French side Bordeaux and Romanian outfit Cluj during the group stage, the draw has presented the Blues with three clubs we have not previously played against in European competition. We have, however, made two previous visits to Sevilla’s city rivals Real Betis in the 1997/98 Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals and 2005/06 Champions League group stage.<br />A quick return<br />Our matches against Rennes could see Edouard Mendy face the French club just a matter of weeks after he left them to join Chelsea. He wouldn’t be the first to do so, as the list of Blues who have made quick returns to play against their former clubs in the Champions League includes Antonio Rudiger (Roma, 2017), Juan Mata (Valencia, 2011), Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho (both Porto, 2004).<br />Europa League masters<br />Chelsea’s games against Sevilla will bring together the winners of six of the last eight editions of the Europa League with the Blues emerging victorious in 2013 and 2019 and the Spanish club lifting the trophy in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2020. Spanish and English clubs have dominated the Europa League for the past nine years with Atletico Madrid (2012 and 2018) and Manchester United (2017) also winning the competition.<br />A long way to go<br />The Blues face a potentially long trip for our match against Krasnodar with a journey of 2,944 kilometres from London to southern Russia.<br />However, it would be only the fourth-longest Champions League journey for the Blues as we travelled 3,221 kilometres to face APOEL in Cyprus in 2009, 3,560 kilometres to take on Maccabi Tel Avic in Israel in 2015 and 3,975 kilometres to meet Qarabag in Azerbaijan in 2017.<br />: Going south once again<br />The presence of Sevilla and Rennes in Group E means Chelsea are guaranteed to face Spanish or French opponents in the Champions League for the 16th time in 17 appearances in the competition. The only previous Champions League campaign in which we did not face a team from either country was in 2012/13 when we suffered our only group stage exit.