It won't be long until Tottenham return to Premier League action with the new season just over a month away. A large chunk of Antonio Conte's first team were back at Hotspur Way on Monday to begin their pre-season training, with the preparations set to step up over the next week with the squad heading off on their summer tour of South Korea on Saturday.
Following their four pre-season friendlies, the Lilywhites will host Southampton at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, August 6 on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. August will also see Conte and his players discover their Champions League group stage opponents when the draw is made in Istanbul, Turkey at 5pm on Thursday, August 25.
Missing out on Europe's premier competition in each of the past two seasons, Spurs will be intent on making up for lost time and making a real statement in the Champions League. However, it certainly won't be easy for them in the group stage given the teams they can potentially come up against.
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Tottenham will be in Pot 2 for the draw in August, meaning they will come up against one of Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, PSG, Porto, Ajax or Eintracht Frankfurt in Pot 1. Borussia Dortmund, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Sporting CP and Bayer Leverkusen are all options in Pot 3, with Marseille also potentially in there unless they are moved into Pot 4, which only contains Club Brugge and Celtic as things stand.
So what are the best case and worst case scenarios for Tottenham in the Champions League group stage? football.london takes a look.
Worst case: Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Marseille/Monaco
Tottenham will ideally want to avoid a number of the clubs in Pot 1 with some of Europe's best potential opponents. Real Madrid will be one of those after Carlo Ancelotti guided them to Champions League and La Liga success last term.
Los Blancos have already strengthened ahead of the new season with Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni adding to an already impressive squad. With just under two months until the transfer window closes for business, there is still plenty of time for Ancelotti to add even more quality to the ranks ahead of the Champions League commencing.
In terms of Pot 3, teams will want to avoid drawing Inter Milan at all costs. The Nerazzurri missed out on Serie A title success to city rivals AC by two points but they do have Romelu Lukaku back on loan from Chelsea after a miserable season for the Belgian in west London.
Pot 4 will become a lot clearer in August once qualifying is done as just Club Brugge and Celtic are in there at the moment. Marseille would be tough opponents for Tottenham if they find themselves in Pot 4 providing Benfica come through qualifying and take the final Pot 3 place, with Monaco, on the back of a successful Ligue 1 season, also a tricky encounter if they reach the group stage.
Best case: Eintracht Frankfurt, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sturm Graz/Union Saint-Gilloise
While of course there are never any straightforward games in the Champions League, Porto and Eintracht Frankfurt are perhaps the opposition Spurs will want to come up against from Pot 1. As the former won the Portuguese title after winning 29 of their 34 league games, the latter, despite winning the Europa League, they may be the better side to face after such a mixed season in the Bundesliga.
Shakhtar Donetsk may be the pick for many in Pot 3, especially with teams such as Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen in there. Shakhtar finished bottom of their Champions League group last season, drawing two and losing four of their six fixtures.
Finally, one of Austrian side Sturm Graz or Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium could be ideal opposition providing they come through qualifying. Both enter at the third qualifying round and are part of the league path.
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