Champions League draw: Real draw Liverpool, Barca get PSG, Man City grouped with Bayern

Monaco Champions Real Madrid will play fivetime former winners Liverpool while fellow Spanish giants Barcelona plucked bigspending Paris SaintGermain as the Champions League group stage draw was made in Monaco on ThursdayBut the most mouthwatering draw saw 2013 champions Bayern Munich paired with Manchester City Roma and CSKA Moscow in Group E It is the third time in four years that Bayern and City will have faced each other in the group stagesBayern Munichs Spanish midfielder Thiago Alcantara right vies with Manchester Citys Spanish midfielder David Silva during the UEFA Champions League group tie in Munich southern Germany on December 10 2013 PicAFPFor English Premier League winners City who failed to progress from the group stages in two of the last three years it continues a run of tough draws at this stage of Europes premier club competition In 201112 they were paired with Bayern and Napoli and missed out on the knockout stages after failing to beat the Italians at home A year later they finished bottom of a group containing Real Borussia Dortmund and Ajax as they failed to win a single game Only last year when they were also thrown in with Bayern did City manage to get through the group stages and this time their job will not be simpleBut perhaps the most eagerlyanticipated group matches will see fourtime winners Barcelona come up against PSG who recruited Brazilian centreback David Luiz from Chelsea in the close season He will be meeting a familiar foe in new Barca signing Luis Suarez the former Liverpool forwardFourtime former winners Ajax another of Suarezs previous sides are alongside the pair in Group F as well as Cypriots ApoelReal Madrid and Liverpool will be confident of progressing from Group B where debutants Ludogorets of Bulgaria who were only formed in 20001 and whose stadium holds just 8000 fans and Swiss outfit Basel who knocked out Manchester United at this stage three years ago awaitLudogoretss participation came in large part thanks to the heroics of defender Cosmin Moti He was forced into goal in the last minute of extratime of their playoff second leg 11 draw with Romanians Steaua Bucharest after goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov was dismissed in the final minute The game went almost immediately into penalties where not only did Moti score his sides first spotkick but he saved two of the Romanians to send the Bulgarians into the lucrative group stagesThere was a kinder draw on paper at least for 2012 champions Chelsea who poached Germans Schalke 04 Sporting Lisbon of Portugal and Slovenias Maribor in Group GArsenal bidding to reach the knockout stages for the 12th year in a row plucked Borussia Dortmund the 2013 finalists in a tough Group D with Galatasaray who beat them in the 2000 UEFA Cup final and Belgian giants AnderlechtLast years runnersup Atletico Madrid the Spanish champions pulled Italian champions Juventus out of the hat in Group A along with Greeks Olympiakos who regularly struggle at this stage and Swedes Malmo the European Cup runnersup from 1979Portuguese pair Porto and Benfica were given manageable draws the latter plucking Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk Athletic Bilbao of Spain and Belarus representatives BATE Borisov in Group HBenfica the twice former winners were drawn against Russians Zenit St Petersburg coached by former Porto boss Andre VillasBoas Bayer Leverkusen of Germany and Russianbacked Monaco in Group C