The Daily Bee (May 24th, 2017): Champions League Pots and EL final

• Europa League final

Today is the Europa League final in Stockholm where Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United face off for the title. Ajax look to crown a season with an exciting young squad that could break apart this summer with Dolberg, Younes, de Ligt & Co. all linked to European top teams.

Manchester United on the other hand have to win the game, not only because they want the title but because it is their only chance of qualifying for the Champions League after they failed to do so in the Premier League.

• Champions League Pots

Since it's a rather slow news-day let's take a look at the pots for next season's Champions League draw.

Pot 1:

Real Madrid CF (La Liga Champions), Juventus (Serie A Champions), Chelsea FC (English Premier League Champions), FC Bayern Munich (Bundesliga Champions), AS Monaco (Ligue 1 Champions), SL Benfica (Portuguese Liga Champions), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian Premier League Champions), Spartak Moscow (Russian Premier League Champions)

The champions of the top 8 leagues are automatically in pot 1. Technically it's just the top 7 leagues + the Champions League winner, but since both Juve and Real Madrid are already qualified because they won their respective leagues, the Ukrainian champion Donetsk slides into pot 1.

There are obviously some tough draws here like Real (not again...), Juve and Chelsea but there are also a few good ones with Donetsk, Benfica and Spartak. Dortmund would probably be considered the favorite against those teams.

Pot 2:

Borussia Dortmund, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City FC, Porto FC, Sevilla FC*, Manchester United FC*

*Both of those teams aren't qualified for the group stages just yet. ManU still has to win the Europa League final against Ajax and Sevilla will have to win their CL-playoff game. If both teams win, they will be in pot 2 if they don't SSC Napoli (they are also in the CL-playoff right now) and Tottenham Hotspur will move up from pot 3.

No matter who the last two teams are in this pot, there are arguably better teams in this pot than the first one. Since BVB will avoid all of them, that is some good news.

Pot 3:

SSC Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur, FC Basel, Dinamo Kiev, Ajax Amsterdam, Olympiakos Piraeus, Anderlecht, Liverpool

Now this pot is a bit uncertain, as of right now the only two teams that will for sure be in this pot are Basel and Anderlecht. All of the other teams can either move up, down or lose in the qualifying rounds. However this is probably what the pot would look like if the favorites win out (which they never do). Again this is probably not 100% accurate.

If the pot actually looks like this, Dortmund would probably like to avoid Napoli, Tottenham and Liverpool, those could be tricky (albeit beatable). The rest of the pot is manageable.

Pot 4:

Feyenoord Rotterdam, RB Leipzig

Well, that's basically it for now. Both teams have qualified and are certain to be in the fourth pot. The rest here is missing because there is no possible way to determine the other teams right now. It could possibly be teams like TSG Hoffenheim, AS Roma, Celtic, FC Kobenhavn and FC Salzburg but we don't know yet.

Since the tricky teams in this pot will probably be Hoffenheim and Leipzig which BVB can't be drawn against these will be must win games in next years group stage. Roma could join them which would be the worst possible outcome for Dortmund

Here just a couple of possible outcomes:

The Gods have forsaken us: Real Madrid, BVB, Tottenham Hotspur, AS Roma

Everything's fine: Spartak Moscow, BVB, Anderlecht, FC Salzburg

Daily Buzz: ManU or Ajax?