The draw is complete and here are your fixtures!
Group A
New boys Peltier were a force to be reckoned with in League Two last season. They took more wins than anyone bar Wives’ Fave and ATC. They really earned their place in the Champions League this season and the fates have rewarded them with three prime opponents to tackle. Their first challenge will be Barons who are making their third Champions League appearance but haven’t yet escaped the group stage.
Peltier’s second CL game will then be against Smash & Grab. S&G won their CL groups in both 2017 & 2018; they made it all the way to the Semis in 2017 where they went out on aggregate to the eventual winners MFF. The following season, S&G won the BFFA Cup, knocking out Barons (then RelicFC) en route. Smash and Barons will meet for a second and third time in gameweeks six and seven. But first up, Smash have to play Route 57. The pair both competed in the Premier League last season, meeting five times. S&G won 3 of the 5, most recently stealing a 47-46 win on the penultimate gameweek. Completely by chance, the pair have met on the opening weekends in consecutive seasons – last season R57 won 57-48; this season Smash won 48-24.
Group B
Our second group is the only one not to feature a Premier League team. Three Championship sides will do battle against Fergi Time, and each other. First up, The El Dude Bros will go up against Hung Like a Bony in the CL this weekend, and then in the League immediately after. Last season, both took six points there from each other, last time we saw Hung winning 47-36 in GW34. They will meet again later here too, in GW9.
Wives Fave will be the first to take on sophomores Fergi Time. Both are 1&1 in their respective leagues this evening, with FT scoring slightly better. It will be Fergi’s first appearance in the CL, while Wives Fave made it to the Quarter-Finals last season. The El Dude Bros, of course, went all the way to the Final after topping Group A; Bros meet Wives in gameweeks 6 and 7 before facing each other in the League in gameweek 8.
Group C
Another hotly-contested group will see three Premier League teams exchanging blows while the league itself rages on in the background. World #1 We have Kompany have already seen off World #12 Sporting Wicker Park – 38-23 in the opening weekend; they meet up again in gameweeks 4 & 8. But before that, SWP have a score to settle against Boss. The two sides finished first and second in the Championship last season, a mere two points apart. Boss took nine points from their four league meetings, narrowly winning 18-17 in their last match. A single matchpoint for SWP there could have given them the title! However, that was not to be, and it was double disappointment as they had been knocked out of the BFFA Cup just the week before by the same opposition!
Boss also have a warm-up game against We have Kompany in the Premier league this weekend. They will play them here three weeks later (in GWs 6 & 7), but first WhK play the outsiders Chicken and Bane San. C&BS are looking to get off the mark somewhere after two straight defeats in the league, probably trying to emulate WhK’s rise to the prize last season. The game against the new-look Drafty *ahem* We have Kompany this weekend will be the first in nearly six years. That last match ended 99-44 to We have Kompany (appearing as Bigger than Brolin) in the penultimate game of that season. BtB won the league, C&BS (as Gadagnome) finished in last place.
Group D
It looks like Group D will be proclaimed the Group of Death once again this season. The League Champions assigned to Group D – Atletico Topo Chico (now of League One) are already top of the League again with two wins from their first two games. In fact, between the four of them, they have won seven of their eight games, and the one loss – was MFF’s 44-37 victory over Wijnaldum Leviosa in Week One.
The two-time champions have familiar opposition in front of them in Match #1. MFF and Gloopy Yarbles were both involved in the Group of Death last season too. MFF walked out as winners from both games (59-32 & 54-37) and went on to top the group. Gloopy bowed out, but went on to qualify for this Champions League competition with the best outstanding points total – finishing 15th in the Best-ish rankings, just three places behind World #2 MFF.
In the final match of this Champions League matchday, League Two Champions ATC will write a new chapter as they meet Wijnaldum Leviosa in their first-ever Champions League match. ATC go in strong, buoyed by two straight wins at the start of the season while Wijnaldum, who have flirted with Champions League dreams before, are only just starting to build momentum on the back of their win over PL Champs R57.
Enjoy!
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