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While the clubs entering the group stage of the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League aren’t finalized yet, we can already start to project potential groups to see who Bayern Munich will draw. Thanks to Github, it’s a lot easier.
They’ve created a pretty easy to use group stage draw simulator for everyone to play with. Now, you can run simulation after simulation to find the Bayern group that you like the most.
To determine who the final teams in the group stage are, they picked the ones with the highest probability for qualification.
Stealing from our friends over at Cartilage Free Captain, I completed three draws to see who Bayern could face.
Simulation 1
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The first simulation pits Bayern against Atletico Madrid, Dinamo Kiev, and Viktoria Plzen.
This isn’t the most difficult group in the world, now is it? While Bayern would have their hands full in a fight for first place with Atleti, they could easily consider themselves “at least” a second place finisher in this group. Dinamo and Viktoria aren’t strong enough sides to really challenge Bayern at home or away.
Drawing Atleti would potentially allow Bayern to take some revenge for their semifinal exit in last year’s competition.
Simulation 2
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The first simulation sees Bayern facing Napoli, Dinamo Kiev, and Besiktas.
Again, another group where Bayern are favorites to advance to the knockout rounds. This time, they would be favorites to win the group as well. Napoli are going to be hurting after selling Gonzalo Higuain to rival Juventus, so they may not have any scoring impetus behind them.
Simulation 3
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Simulation 3 has Bayern facing Sevilla, PSV Eindhoven, and Legia Warsaw.
It’s hard to beat a draw that looks like this. The three potential draws for Bayern all came back with relatively easy groups for the team to definitely advance out of and likely win.
However, watch Bayern end up in a group with Atletico Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, and Celtic (It doesn’t matter which fourth pod team gets drawn with Bayern).
Give it a shot for yourself. Who did Bayern draw in your simulation?