When you start a new Career Mode on FIFA 18, it’s likely you’ll want to configure the European Competitions. Adding a little realism always makes this game mode a lot better. However, it’s impossible to get the teams and groups perfect due to certain countries being absent from the game. This guide will show you how to get the most accurate Champions League Groups as well as for the Europa League.
UPDATE: On some devices the screenshots aren’t wonderfully clear so I have detailed all groups in the text to make things easier for you.
Getting Started
Once in Career Mode, you’ll select Manager Career and then pick the team you’d like to manage. After that you set your manager preferences and then you’ll get to career settings. Along with all the other choices, you’ll have the option to turn on European competitions in the first season.
Once you’ve select this option you’ll be shown the screen below.
Pressing square/X will add teams into the groups at random.
Pressing square/X one more time will redraw the teams but with ‘realistic participants’. This is what the Champions Cup (Champions League) will look like.
‘Realistic teams’ will also be drawn for the Euro League (Europa League), as you can see below.
Now it’s time to switch a few things around and make your career mode a little more realistic.
Champions League Groups
Whoops, I meant Champions Cup. Configuring this competition to accurately reflect the participants for the 2017/18 season is going to be relatively simple. This means we’re able to get to 90% accuracy with the setup shown below.
Only three 2017/18 Champions League teams are absent from the game. Qarabağ FK (Azerbaijan), NK Maribor (Slovenia) and Apoel Nicosia (Cyprus). This means group C, E and H aren’t quite perfect. Groups A, B, D, F and G are all exactly as they should be.
Once you’ve got FIFA’s ‘realistic’ configuration, 29 out of the 32 teams are already correct. You’ll be left with three teams that don’t belong, but you’re limited to switching to teams within the same league.
- OGC Nice – switch to Troyes AC
- Hoffenheim – switch to Stuttgart
- Kobenhavn- switch to Hobro IK
This isn’t ideal, but we want to recreate the groups as best as possible. With regards to these three teams, it’s just about picking the lowest rated side in each league. Feel free to make changes, as long as groups C, E and H each have a ‘weaker’ team in them.
Once you’ve got the right teams, just switch them to the correct groups. The game won’t let you put two teams from the same country in the same group (even temporarily).
The final setup should be like this:
Group A
- Benfica
- CSKA Moscow
- Manchester United
- Basel
Group B
- PSG
- Bayern Munich
- Celtic
- Anderlecht
Group C
- Chelsea
- Roma
- Atletico Madrid
- Hobro IK
Group D
- Barcelona
- Juventus
- Sporting
- Olympiakos
Group E
- Sevilla
- Liverpool
- Stuttgart
- Spartak Moscow
Group F
- Manchester City
- Napoli
- Shaktar Donetsk
- Feyenoord
Group G
- FC Porto
- Monaco
- Besiktas
- RB Leipzig
Group H
- Real Madrid
- Borussia Dortmund
- Tottenham Hotspur
- Troyes AC
Europa League Groups
Referred to as the Euro League in game. This one presents more of a challenge than the Champions League groups because of the more varied countries involved. The official participants can be found here but with the setup below you’ll get to 62.5% accuracy.
As this one is a little more complicated I’ll give you a breakdown of the teams.
- Panathinaikos – switch to AEK Athens
- Poznan – switch to Z Lubin
- Fenerbahce – switch to Alanyaspor
- Krasnodar – switch to Tosno
- Gent – switch to KAS Eupen
- Girondins – switch to OGC Nice
- Sion – switch to Young Boys
- ODD – switch to Stromsgodset
- Altach – switch to St Polten
- Brondby – switch to Kobenhavn
- Ajax – switch to NAC Breda
- Freiburg – switch to Hoffenheim
- Aberdeen – switch to Hamilton
- CL Brugge – switch to Lokeren
- Galatasaray – switch to Goztepe
- PAOK – switch to HJK
- Oostende – switch to Mouscron
Once again, just switch the teams around so they match the configuration in the image above/text below.
Group A
- Sparta Praha
- Villareal
- Midtjylland
- Maritimo
Group B
- BSC Young Boys
- Tosno
- Alanyaspor
- Lokoren
Group C
- Braga
- Basaksehir
- Hoffenheim
- Legia Warsaw
Group D
- Milan
- AEK Athens
- Austria
- Mouscron
Group E
- Atalanta
- OL
- Everton
- St Polten
Group F
- Lokomotiv
- Kobenhavn
- Hamilton
- Z. Lubin
Group G
- Lugano
- HJK
- NAC Breda
- Stromsgodset
Group H
- Arsenal
- Koln
- Utrecht
- Goztepe
Group I
- Salzburg
- OM
- Konyaspor
- V Guimaraes
Group J
- Ostersunds
- Athletic Bilbao
- Berlin
- Gdynia
Group K
- OGC Nice
- Lazio
- Waregem
- Vitesse
Group L
- Zenit
- Sociedad
- Rosenborg
- KAS Eupen