as monaco

FC Barcelona will begin the defence of their title in Group E following the draw on Thursday in Monaco. Luis Enrique's team will begin the road to Milan - the venue for this season's final - and their first challenge will be against the sides from Germany, Italy and Belarus in the group stages. Barça have met Bayer three times in the Champions League era. AS Roma was the rival of the Joan Gamper trophy a few weeks ago, while BATE Borisov is former Barça man Aleksander Hleb’ team.

Barça were placed in Group G in the the Champions League Group Stage along with Benfica from Lisbon, Spartak Moscow and Celtic from Glasgow. Benfica and Barça will face off once again after the 1960/61 Champions League final.

FC Barcelona lifted the European Super Cup for the fourth time in their history with a 2-0 win over Porto in Monaco. Goals in each half from Messi and Cesc proved enough for Guardiola’s team to take their 12th title under his stewardship.

FC Barcelona and Porto meet this evening (20.45h CET) in a very special European Super Cup. It’s the last to be played at the Louis II in Monaco. Piqué, Puyol and Afellay are all out through injury.

The Argentinian, who topped the goalscoring charts in the last edition of the Champions League has beaten Cristiano Ronaldo and Xavi to win the award. In the same event, FC Barcelona was paired with AC Milan, Bate Borisov and Viktoria Plzen in the group H of this season’s Champions League.

Barça player Gerard Piqué got injured in training and will be out for three weeks. Piqué tore fibres in his left calf muscle and will not play the European Super Cup match in Monaco against Porto next Friday evening.