Chelsea drawn with Porto, Dynamo Kyiv and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Champions League

Winners: Chelsea clinched the Champions League in 2012
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/GettyImages
Vaishali Bhardwaj27 August 2015

Premier League champions Chelsea were handed a relatively easy fixture list in the Champions League group stages after being drawn with Porto, Dynamo Kyiv and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Group G.

Jose Mourinho's team, who were seeded in Pot One along with the champions of the seven other top European leagues, were handed the draw on Thursday in Monaco, and will be relieved to have missed out on some of the top European sides such as Real Madrid.

It means Chelsea will have to travel to Portugual to play Porto, Ukraine to face Dynamo and Israel to take on Maccabi on their way to the knockout phases of this year's competition.

The draw will also see Mourinho return to Porto, the club where he won the Champions League at in 2004 following a 3-0 final win over Monaco.

The Portuguese tactician will be hoping the kind fixture list will aid in the Blues' aim of going one better than the club's last-16 finish of last season, which saw the 2012 Champions League winners knocked out by French giants Paris Saint-Germain on the away goals rule.

The two teams played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their match before PSG twice came from behind to overcome Chelsea in the second leg despite the Ligue 1 club having star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off.

Winner: Jose Mourinho led Porto to Champions League success in 2004
Alex Livesey/Getty Images

The Champions League draw was modified this year with the domestic champions of the seven highest-ranked leagues, along with the European Cup holders, being given preferential treatment by being seeded first.

PSV made Pot One because Barcelona won La Liga and also lifted the Champions League last season following their final win over Juventus, with English teams in Pot One not being able to draw another English side from another pot.

Mourinho missed out on facing his former side Real Madrid while Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Blues striker Diego Costa avoided playing their former club Atletico Madrid in the draw.

But the changes increased the chances of teams such as Arsenal playing a top European side, which resulted in Gunners manager Arsene Wenger criticising the new format.

He said at the time: "I believe it will just make the seedings useless. Logic is not being respected. Logic for me when you play in Europe is results in Europe.

"It will just make the seeding less interesting. Pot one will now have less significance.

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