PARIS, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Big-spending Paris Saint-Germain will play La Liga giants Barcelona while Russian-backed fellow Ligue 1 side Monaco meet twice former winners Benfica as the European Champions League group stage draw was made in Monte Carlo, Monaco on Thursday afternoon.
Both the French clubs can't be too confident of progressing as PSG have four-time former winners Dutchmen Ajax and Cypriots Apoel in Group F and Monaco also play Bundesliga side Leverkusen and Russians Zenit St Petersburg in Group C.
However, the toughest draw out of the eight groups came alongside with the 2013 winners Bayern Munich and English Premier League champions Manchester City, who will face each other in the round-robin group stage for the third time in four years.
The current German and English champions met in the 2011-12 season when City failed to get out of the group, and again last season when Bayern triumphed 3-1 at the Etihad before City won 3-2 in Germany but Manuel Pellegrini famously appeared to miscalculate what was needed to top the group.
Joining Man. City and Bayern in the so-called "Death" Group E are Russian champions CSKA Moscow and Italian outfit Roma.
Defending champions Real Madrid will play five-time former winners Liverpool in Group B, La Liga defenders Atletico Madrid found Juventus in Group A, English Premierships' Arsenal and Bundesliga's Dortmund settled together for Group D, Chelsea and Schalke 04 both in Group G, and Portugal's Porto stay in Group H with Shakhtar Donetsk, Athletic Bilbao and BATE Broisov.
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