By AVI CREDITOR
With Wednesday's matches in the books, the 2010-2011 UEFA Champions League field of 32 is complete.
Peter Crouch's hat trick helped Tottenham exhale and recover from a surprise first-leg loss to BSC Young Boys, as Spurs coasted to a 4-0 victory (6-3 on aggregate) at White Hart Lane to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time.
Another first-timer in the group stage is Slovakian side MSK Zilina, which defeated Sparta Prague, 1-0 (3-0 on aggregate), to reach new territory.
Other winners on Wednesday were:
- French side AJ Auxerre, which overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to topple nine-man Zenit St. Petersburg 2-0 (2-1 on aggregate).
- Ajax Amsterdam, which topped Dynamo Kiev, 2-1 (3-2 on aggregate).
- FC Copenhagen, which defeated Rosenborg, 1-0, and advanced via away goals after the two sides played to a 2-2 aggregate draw.
Here are the four pots from which the groups will be drawn at noon (ET) in Monaco (and televised live on Fox Soccer Channel):
POT 1
- Inter Milan
- Barcelona
- Chelsea
- Manchester United
- Arsenal
- Bayern Munich
- AC Milan
- Lyon
POT 2
- Real Madrid
- Werder Bremen
- AS Roma
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- Benfica
- Valencia
- Marseille
- Panathinaikos
POT 3
- Tottenham
- Rangers
- Ajax
- Schalke 04
- FC Basel
- Braga
- FC Copenhagen
- Spartak Moscow
POT 4
- Hapoel Tel Aviv
- FC Twente
- Rubin Kazan
- AJ Auxerre
- CFR 1907 Cluj
- Partizan Belgrade
- MSK Zilina
- Bursaspor
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Which teams in pots 3 and 4 do you think can be the most dangerous? Do you think Real Madrid can still win it all despite being placed in the second pot? How would you like to see the cards fall for Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Jermaine Jones (Schalke) and Maurice Edu (Rangers)?
Share your thoughts below.
Yup, UEFA organizes teams by past results in either the CL or the Europa League. Seeing as how Real Madrid has bounced out of the Round of 16 the past 4-5 years, it’s no surprise that they’re seeded lower than the English teams.
How does the EPL get 3 teams in pot 1 when La Liga only gets 1? I would consider Real Madrid a tougher team than Arsenal (or AC Milan). Is it based on past results?
Well I am a Bayern fan, and I am looking for them to be in a group with Marseille (Ribery reunion), Rangers (want to see Edu), and FC Twente (have to play the dutch). Its a hard group, but Bayern should deffently win the group.
schalke and auxerre. yikes.
They finished up last year on an amazing roll, didn’t lose anybody (to my knowledge) in the transfer market, and even brought in Mido to strngthen their attack. As much as people don’t like Martin Jol, he seems to be doing a good job there.
shakhtar will make noise. so many sick little brazilians.
Boss also played with the U20’s in the Milk Cup and was recently announced to the current U20 roster. I suspect Braga will aim to keep him b/c he’s been absolute class for the U20’s and been receiving heavy praise from Braga.
cheap acquisition all together for a promising 18 yr old CB.
fair point about Ajax. They’re a lot better these last two years than they were the previous decade.
I would think that whoever get Ajax out of Pot 3 also has a chance at a group of death. After all, Ajax has a ton of good players (Steklenberg, Luis Suarez, and de Zeuw all played a lot for top World Cup teams).
No, whoever gets RM from Pot 2.
after some google searching it appears that he’s still with the Braga youth team, despite what Wikipedia says about them sending him back to Miami FC.
Does anyone actually know where Agbossoumonde is? He’s not listed on the roster of either Braga or Miami FC.
AC Milan, Panathianokos, Copenhagen, and Zilina would be the “group of cake”
The odds are against their being a group of death this time, I think. There are only three and a half really tought Pot #2 teams (Madrid, Bremen, Roma, maybe Valencia).
If you call a true ‘group of death’ one that has three really tough teams in it, then the likelihood of drawing one of the 3-4 Pot#2 killers and either Tottenham or Rubin Kazan in a single group is less than half.
Total likelihood of such a group, between 20-25%.
EDIT: A little higher since it’s fair to call Schalke a really tough team.
Now wouldn’t it be cool if Madrid, Tottenham, AND Rubin were all in one group?
How awesome would Spurs, Inter, Real Madrid, and Ruban Kazan be? Group of Armageddan!
Anyone want to bet Chelsea and Real Madrid end up inthe same group.
OR who ever gets Rubin Kazan from pot 4…
More chance for Onyewu debuting with Milan or Gale Boss debuting for Braga in champions league?
Edu is really the only one I am real excited for this champions league.
I think its safe to say whoever gets Tottenham from Pot3 is probably going to be the Group of Death.
As a Roma fan, my best hope would be to actually be in Barcelona’s group and to play them first/last. My thinking being that Barca would beat everyone else in the group pretty handily, hopefully making it easier for Roma to get into the knockouts – where they wouldn’t face Barca first.
Somehow UEFA CL draws always pick out juicy matchups for the group stages – I am interested in how it will play out.