Champions League 2018/19: Anatomy of the groups - Part 2

Group G

Gareth Bale will have to shoulder the responsibility to come up with the goals after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo

Teams: CSKA Moscow, Real Madrid, AS Roma and Viktoria Plzen

There should not be a Ballon d 'Or to guess the team of the group where the entire focus will be on the group stages.

Real Madrid are the defending champions but they have suffered a shocking void when Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Juventus earlier in the summer.

It would be an interesting watch to find out how they will fair without their superstar goalscorer in the competition.

The core of Los Blancos is still the same with Bale, Benzema, Isco, Modric, Marcelo and Ramos.

They have started the home campaign superbly but, in the Champions League, it is a different show. Together the core team will have to come up to the plate to compensate for the loss of 12-15 goals a season in the Champions League.

However, they have got an easy draw in terms of the opponents present in the group and should do a light work to move to the round of sixteen.

AS Roma is the next strong team who were responsible for shattering the dreams of Lionel Messi and Co. in the last campaign.

The Russian outfit CSKA Moscow and the Czech rivals Viktoria Plzen would fight it out for the Europa League.

Given the might of Real Madrid and AS Roma, it would be a miracle of the decade, if either of the minnows makes it to the next round. Moscow will hold the advantage over Plzen as they would try to repeat the heroics from the previous campaign.