2017/18 UEFA Champions League Draw: Reviewing the 8 groups

Group G: The group of the young

AS Monaco have lost a number of their star players in the summer

AS Monaco would have been favourites in this group considering last season's dream run into the semifinals. However, that mesmerising season which saw the Ligue 1 side win the league as well, led to loss of key players Benjamin Mendy, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Bernardo Silva so far. 18-year old Kylian Mbappe is likely to leave as well and this strips the side of most of the top performers from last season. Thus, only time will tell how Leonardo Jardim's side fare this year.

FC Porto are somewhat of a constant fixture in the Champions League. The Portuguese side continue to act as a launch pad for relatively unknown players before making a huge profit out of their transfers.This year promises to be no different and Porto also have the small issue of failing to upstage Benfica domestically for a while now. Thus, it remains to be seen how they will perform in the group stages.

Besiktas have assembled a list of players with Champions League experience in Pepe, Ryan Babel, Gary Medel, Ricardo Quaresma and Alvaro Negredo. The Turkish side will be hoping to cross the group stage for the first time in their history and their recruitment suggests the focus will be Europe. If not, they will be aiming the Europa League round of 32 berth as a minimum.

RB Leipzig play in their first ever European campaign this season and their entry complicates matters in the group. The German side finished second to Bayern Munich in the league and will be a tough proposition for every team in the group. In fact, Leipzig can be considered as one of the favourites to qualify from the group.

Prediction

1. AS Monaco
2. RB Leipzig
3. FC Porto
4. Besiktas