Real Madrid Logo Drawing Step By Step

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It is often difficult to understand the trepidation that exists for so many when the draw for the Champions League group stage comes around. Early clashes with the continent's heavyweights are often dreaded; meetings with the relative minnows of Europe's top tier are often craved.

"But we must avoid Bayern this time," one fan will say, while enviously commenting on how a rival club always seems to "get an easy group." Another will soon chime in with something similar: "Drawing Dinamo Zagreb, Gent and Astana would be ideal; hopefully [insert rival club name here] get shafted with Barca and City or something like that."

Of course, what drives such an attitude is the potential for failure and not progressing to the competition's knockout rounds. But at the same time it also contradicts the entire reason for being there in the first place: You're in the Champions League to play against the best. The glamour ties are to be savoured, their dates put in the calendar in anticipation. Yet still the negativity toward them persists.

"Real Madrid luck out in Champions League draw," proclaimed Marca in the Spanish capital on Thursday, appearing to view a pair of group-stage meetings with Paris Saint-Germain as a problem. Admittedly, the interpretation of the phrase "luck out" is completely the opposite in American English as it is in British English, so the Spaniards' use of it could be interpreted in two ways.

Regardless, earlier in the day, AS editor Alfredo Relano had bemoaned "the curious sight of Madrid in pot two...," seemingly fearing a group with a fellow heavyweight after UEFA's changes to its seeding of clubs that saw Real slip out of pot one. After the draw had taken place, Marca also ran headlines to the tune of: "No tall orders for Atletico," "Lucky break for Valencia," and "Every one a tough cookie for Sevilla."

Evidently, it's the easy draw that's craved, despite the craving being so baffling, so flawed.

#CHAMP13NS 🇺🇸🇬🇧 @ realmadriden
🏆 UEFA Champions League 👥 Group A #UCLdraw #RMUCL #HalaMadrid http://t.co/X8WUPJLUvg

Drawn in Group A with PSG, Malmo and Shakhtar Donetsk, Real Madrid find themselves in a group that's very winnable, but it's also one that's enticing for the presence of the French giants. In the space of two weeks, Los Blancos will twice battle with the Parisians in clashes that will almost certainly decide the group's winner, given that it's a quartet that, like most of them in the competition, is extremely top-heavy.

That pair of meetings are also ones for fans to count down to, the first one in Paris a magnificent opportunity for Madrilenian's to follow their team while concurrently visiting an iconic city. It's the whole football-and-short-getaway combo—the perfect bundle.

But that's for the fans; what about for the team? Well, frankly, being drawn with PSG isexactly what Real Madrid need.

When you dispassionately reflect on the club's dominance between mid-September and Christmas last season, a run that featured 22 consecutive victories and more records broken than a stint in a Sydney Olympic pool, one thing immediately strikes you: a lack of genuine tests.

Aside from the Clasico at home on October 25, Real Madrid's victories in that period came against Basel (twice), Deportivo La Coruna, Elche, Villarreal, Ludogorets (twice), Athletic Club, Levante, Liverpool (twice), Cornella (twice), Granada, Rayo Vallecano, Eibar, Malaga, Celta Vigo, Almeria, Cruz Azul and San Lorenzo.

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Thus, Real's emphatic form in that period clouded the fact that, in almost four months, they faced only one opponent that would be considered an equal—only one outfit capable of actually challenging them.

It's not unreasonable to suggest, then, that Carlo Ancelotti's men got too comfortable, their raw talent enough, their weaknesses never revealed. Ultimately, the whole period was deceiving, Real's attack-heavy and defensively light XI—a system inherently unbalanced—gaining a false sense of superiority, of control.

Their weak Champions League group was actually a hindrance.

So, when the gentle run ended, when the likes of Valencia and Atletico Madrid became the opponents, the flawed fundamentals of Real's method were exposed, the latter hammering Los Blancos in the way Los Blancos had hammered others.

Compounding the problem was that, as injuries piled up, fatigue set in and the fixtures started coming thick and fast, Real didn't have the tools to reverse the decline. Back-ups had little form and even less confidence. The system's effectiveness relied on too few. And the time to mix it up, to devise alternatives and coping mechanisms, didn't exist, leaving Real without a reliable way to combat their equals.

Looking back, Real Madrid needed a PSG or a Bayern Munich or a Manchester City in their Champions League group. This time, they do, just as they did in their 2013-14 title-winning campaign, when they battled Juventus twice in Group B.

After Thursday's draw, they've got that. Manager Rafa Benitez will be pleased, too.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Think about it: If Real Madrid had drawn three European minnows, anything other than six group-stage thrashings would have been viewed as a failure for Benitez, piling pressure on the manager's attacking philosophy that's already (prematurely) being criticised in Madrid.

Instead, though, clashes with PSG will give Benitez's Madrid an early measuring stick, the second meeting with the French champions immediately followed by a trip to Sevilla and the season's first Clasico.

What Benitez has, therefore, is an opportunity to flip the script. In such a stretch, his team doesn't need to bulldoze all before it; instead, clean sheets, narrow victories and systematically sound performances will constitute success after last season's failures in such areas. This means the new boss has the chance to instil a method, a mentality, within his side that could prove beneficial in the season's closing stretch.

In short, he has a window in which his Real Madrid can grow accustomed to repelling heavyweights rather than accustomed to flattening flyweights.

It's exactly what Real Madrid need. The glamour ties are there to be embraced.

Follow @TimDCollins