METAIRIE, La. — Receiver Michael Thomas won’t return from his ankle injury this week. He was one of six New Orleans Saints starters ruled out for Sunday’s game at Detroit.
The Saints will also be without both of their starting cornerbacks, Marshon Lattimore (hamstring) and Janoris Jenkins (shoulder), tight end Jared Cook (groin), guard Andrus Peat (ankle) and defensive end Marcus Davenport (elbow/toe).
Thomas, who has been sidelined with a high ankle sprain since Week 1, returned to practice this week and practiced on a limited basis every day. But the Saints apparently don’t want to rush him back into game action. It’s unclear whether he will be ready to play in Week 5, when the Saints host the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football. They have a bye in Week 6.
The draw for the 2020-21 Champions League group stage is complete. See how Thursday’s ceremony in Geneva unfolded below.
Group A
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | Germany |
| 2 | Atletico Madrid | Spain |
| 3 | Red Bull Salzburg | Austria |
| 4 | Lokomotiv Moscow | Russia |
Instant analysis: Reigning champions Bayern Munich should stroll into the knockout stage, while Atletico Madrid – now powered by Luis Suarez – will likely join them. Don’t sleep on Red Bull Salzburg, though. Erling Haaland may not be there anymore, but Zambian striker Patson Daka will turn plenty of heads in the high-profile clashes with the two Group A heavyweights.
Group B
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | Spain |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | Ukraine |
| 3 | Inter Milan | Italy |
| 4 | Borussia Monchengladbach | Germany |
Instant analysis: Tricky. Decorated pair Real Madrid and Inter Milan jump off the page – rightfully so, considering their talent and pedigree – but underdogs Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Monchengladbach both have the tools to cause headaches, if not full-blown upsets, in Group B, which should make for some intriguing viewing.
Group C
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FC Porto | Portugal |
| 2 | Manchester City | England |
| 3 | Olympiacos | Greece |
| 4 | Marseille | France |
Instant analysis: With all due respect to FC Porto, things could hardly have gone better for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City on Thursday. Winning the Champions League is becoming an obsession for the English club’s brass, and this somewhat fortuitous draw puts City in an ideal position to get their continental campaign off to a dream start.
Group D
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | England |
| 2 | Ajax | Netherlands |
| 3 | Atalanta | Italy |
| 4 | FC Midtjylland | Denmark |
Instant analysis: Expect plenty of goals. Premier League champions Liverpool will be looking to make amends for last season’s surprising ouster against Atletico and will meet fellow high-octane teams in the form of Ajax and everybody’s new favorite club, Atalanta. Danish side Midtjylland, who have become something of a champion for analytics in football, will be interesting to watch, too.
Group E
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sevilla | Spain |
| 2 | Chelsea | England |
| 3 | FC Krasnodar | Russia |
| 4 | Rennes | France |
Instant analysis: Frank Lampard has to be smiling from ear-to-ear amid a wonky start to the season. Europa League holders Sevilla will provide a stern test and Rennes are rolling to begin the campaign in France, but Chelsea will be the favorites to top the quartet despite coming out of Pot 2. You can’t ask for much more.
Group F
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zenit St. Petersburg | Russia |
| 2 | Borussia Dortmund | Germany |
| 3 | Lazio | Italy |
| 4 | Club Brugge | Belgium |
Instant analysis: This is another section where the Pot 1 club – in this case, Zenit St. Petersburg – could have a tough time reaching the tournament’s knockout stage. Borussia Dortmund are easily the most talented team in Group F, while Lazio, returning to the Champions League proper for the first time since the 2007-08 season, will surely fancy their chances of advancing.
Group G
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | Italy |
| 2 | Barcelona | Spain |
| 3 | Dynamo Kyiv | Ukraine |
| 4 | Ferencvaros | Hungary |
Instant analysis: The showstopper. All eyes will be on the eternal rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi when Juventus and Barcelona meet. The GOAT debate will once again come into full focus, for better or worse, after fans were robbed of that matchup when Ronaldo left Real Madrid for Italy. Luckily for the two perennial powers, they were afforded some relief – relatively speaking – with the rest of the Group G draw.
Group H
| Pot | Club | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris Saint-Germain | France |
| 2 | Manchester United | England |
| 3 | RB Leipzig | Germany |
| 4 | Istanbul Basaksehir | Turkey |
Instant analysis: Save the best for last? This may be the most fascinating group of the lot, with RB Leipzig looking to build on last season’s impressive run by knocking one of Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester United off stride. The Red Devils, in particular, will be sweating a bit here. Group-stage debutants Istanbul Basaksehir, meanwhile, will be rolling out some faces that’ll be familiar to fans of the two big-name teams in the quartet.
UEFA will release the full match schedule Friday. The Champions League group stage is slated to begin Oct. 20.
The Atlanta Falcons’ home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, is believed to be the first professional sports venue to implement drones to clean the stadium, but they’re not the only ones using new technology.
Beginning after the team’s Oct. 11 game against the Carolina Panthers, the 71,000-seat stadium, which has not hosted fans for the first two home games because of the coronavirus pandemic, will welcome back a limited capacity. (The stadium hosted about 500 family members, friends and associates for a test run during Sunday’s Bears-Falcons game.)
Mercedes-Benz Stadium partnered with Charlotte-based Lucid Drone Technologies for D1 disinfecting drones to sanitize areas. The drones use electrostatic spraying nozzles for even distribution of medical-grade disinfecting chemicals that include an inhibitor that prevents bacteria and virus from adhering to surfaces without leaving a residue. The nontoxic hypochlorous acid solution is in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards, according to the company.
