Champions League 2016 draw results: Group C features Pep Guardiola vs. Barcelona

Group C falls quite neatly into two through, two out, but there should be some decent games. Pep Guardiola’s return to Barcelona with Manchester City is the headline story, and it’s going to be fascinating to watch the team that Guardiola built, now heavily modified, take on the team he’s trying to build. And Gladbach and Celtic, though they may struggle, should at least be fun.

Assuming everybody’s fit and in form, then Barcelona have one of the most intimidating forward lines in the history of football — if Lionel Messi doesn’t get you, then Luis Suárez and Neymar will — and the rest of the team isn’t bad either. They’ve spent the summer strengthening the squad, picking up Denis Suárez, Samuel Umtiti and André Gomes, and while they don’t always win, it’s incredibly hard to imagine them finishing this six-game group anywhere other than on top.

City are something of an unknown quantity at this stage: last time around, they made it to the semifinals, then surrendered meekly against Real Madrid. Since then, Manuel Pellegrini’s gone, and while Guardiola’s latest project have made a decent start in the Premier League and strolled through their qualifying tie against Steaua Bucharest, this is still very much a team in its formative stages. Should have enough for a comfortable second, though.

A tricky draw for the 2015-16 Bundesliga’s surprise package, and if they’re to push the teams ahead of them, they’ll need to continue their excellent home form; last season, at the Borussia-Park, they lost only three games all season and beat Bayern Munich 3-1. There’s the quality in the squad — notably Fabian Johnson, Thorgan Hazard and Christoph Kramer — to take advantage of any slip-ups by the bigger boys, but realistically, they’ll be looking to secure a Europa League place ahead of Celtic.

Welcome back to Europe, Brendan Rodgers! We can be sure that Rodgers won’t be making the mistake he made last time around, when he rotated his Liverpool side to disastrous effect, but the fact remains that Celtic’s squad looks worryingly thin in defence. Conceding four against Hapoel Be’er Sheva in qualifying did nothing to dispel that worry.

Well, you already know all about Lionel Messi. Bravo has moved from Barcelona to Manchester City to displace Joe Hart as Guardiola’s first choice and enable City to build from the back in accordance with their manager’s vision. This inevitably means that when he faces his and his manager’s old club, he’ll either have the greatest game of his career, or he’ll shank one into his own net.

Speaking of footballing inevitability, Celtic, though they’re probably not getting out of the group, are definitely going to beat somebody at Parkhead that they shouldn’t be beating. There’ll be a febrile atmosphere, there’ll be a remarkable intensity, and they’ll win thanks to a Kolo Toure piledriver.