Yay! In today's unsurprising news story, Napoli are officially seeded for the Champions League playoffs.
What does that mean, you ask? Well, Napoli won't face Arsenal (thank goodness), or Bayer Leverkusen, or Porto. And if Zenit St. Petersburg make it through the third qualifying round, they'll be seeded as well.
Of course, this tells us absolutely nothing about who Napoli will face in August. The playoff round involves five non-Champions who don't get a bye into the group stages. Then there are five non-Champions who had to go through one or more of the qualifying stages. Then there are the ten Champions who had to emerge victorious from one or more of those stages.
It's enough to make your head spin. Particularly when you haven't had enough coffee yet. The important thing to note is that Napoli are likely to face a not-so-scary opponent in the first stage and, barring a complete collapse, should make it to the group stage.
Where we'll inevitably land the Group of Death with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Monaco.
Write this down
Draw: August 8
First leg: August 19-20
Second leg: August 26-27
