CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW CAN CITY FINALLY LAND THE BIG ONE?

Well, they’ve got easy draw for starters

Manchester city’s latest attempt to win their first champions League title was given an early boost when they landed a dream group here yesterday.

and last season’s winners Liverpool will also be confident of progress — despite having to once again face feared Italians napoli.

however, it was a north-south divide for the english clubs on a balmy night, with London pair chelsea and tottenham given tough assignments.

city, the favourites, should have no trouble seeing off Italians atalanta, croatians Dinamo Zagreb and Ukrainians shakhtar Donetsk, who they will face for a third successive season in a group they must expect to top by some way.

Getting out of the group will not be the problem for city, it will be taking those steps deep into the competition which — amazingly under Pep Guardiola — they have failed to do. they have not made the last four in the three years the spaniard has been at the helm.

In fact, Guardiola’s relationship with ‘ old big ears’ has cooled dramatically since he lifted the trophy in 2011 with Barcelona. he also failed to guide Bayern to a final in his three seasons at the allianz.

But city director of football txiki Begiristain believes Guardiola’s side, who suffered a

heartbreaking, Var-triggered exit to spurs in last season’s quarter-final, can end their long wait for europe’s biggest prize.

‘We know we can get close to this trophy,’ said the spaniard. ‘One day it is going to come. We have to keep fighting. We have to keep going in our way, our style. I think we have shown we can win trophies. We have to be ourselves.’

Liverpool drawing napoli, who they defeated and lost to in last season’s competition, was met with groans in the red half of Merseyside. Jurgen Klopp’s side will need to finish above austrians salzburg and Belgian side Genk to progress.

Virgil van Dijk, who was crowned Uefa Men’s Player of the Year last night, said: ‘everyone wants to beat us. We have to fight every game. napoli have a fantastic squad, we know how good they are.’

Klopp sounded a similar note. ‘It’s not an easy group and not a group where we can hide behind anybody,’ he said.

spurs, who lost in the final to Liverpool last time, take on German giants Bayern Munich, Greeks Olympiacos and serbians red star Belgrade.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men have had a patchy start to the season and will clearly need to be at their best. frank Lampard’s chelsea, banned from signing players this season, clash with last season’s shock semi- finalists ajax, spaniards Valencia and french side Lille.

technical performance advisor Petr cech, who bizarrely was involved in the draw despite his club affiliation, looked on the bright side.

‘It’s not an easy group because it’s very even, all the teams have a lot of quality,’ he said.

‘It’s one of those where everyone can beat everybody and this makes it very interesting. We can be satisfied because we avoided long travel, which is one of the positives.’

elsewhere, a brutal Group f features Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan and slavia Prague.

cristiano ronaldo, who missed out to Van Dijk for the player award, joked later about his relationship with Lionel Messi. ‘It’s good,’ he said. ‘We have not had dinner yet! We have had a battle for 15 years — he pushed me and I pushed him.’

Later, england’s Lucy Bronze was named the Uefa Women’s Player of the Year.

Istanbul’s ataturk Olympic stadium will host the final on May 30. servet Yardimci, the turkish football federation vicepresident, has promised the city will not experience the organisational problems which dogged the 2005 final between Liverpool and ac Milan staged there.

‘In 2005 it was really too early for us,’ he admitted. ‘now it’s different. We are more than prepared to be able to cope.’