The UEFA Champions League group stage draw is set for this morning (11:30am, Fox Soccer Channel) and we could be in for some very interesting groups.
With Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund sitting in lower group draw pots, we could find ourselves with some very strong groups, and stand a good chance of seeing at least one and even two groups worth of the Group of Death label.
Here are the groups that will be drawn today (keep in mind that teams from the same league can't be drawn against each other):
Pot 1– Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich. Chelsea, Inter Milan, Manchester United, FC Porto, Real Madrid
Pot 2– AC Milan, Benfica, CSKA Moscow, Lyon, Marseille, Shakhtar Donetsk, Valencia, Villarreal
Pot 3– Ajax, Basel, BATE Borisov, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Zenit St Petersburg
Pot 4– APOEL Nicosia, Borussia Dortmund, Dinamo Zagreb, Genk, Napoli, Otelul Galati, Trabzonspor, Viktoria Plzen
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I'll be doing a live commentary on today's draw so please feel free to follow along with me as it happens. If you will be watching the Champions League group stage draw, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on the outcome in the comments section below.
Commentary is after the jump:
Tevez plays in England and he doesn’t speak English.
You are always so bitter on this board.
he played in england…they haven’t ever played in an english speaking country.
Why is that interesting? Cristiano played in England for years. They didn’t/
United waltzes out in the easiest group imaginable.
Interesting that Ronaldo speaks English but Messi and Xavi don’t. Messi and Xavi are looking like lost (and cute) puppies when Ronaldo is speaking.
(SBI-That would be interesting save for the fact Ronaldo spent multiple years playing in ENGLAND, while both Messi and Xavi have only played in Spain.)
Xavi!
El motorcito de Terrazas…
When a country has four teams, two go on the A-D groups, two go to groups E-H. Chelsea and Arsenal were already in the bottom half of the groups.
because they had to be in a red group as they cant have more than 2 teams in the CL from a certain country playing on the same night…
So they could not be in a group that would play the same night as Man United
I’m on pins and needles wondering who will win the UEFA vote for Best Player,
The FIFA dudes need to learn the alphabet – ha ha.
We have our Group of Death. A
Why could Man City only go into Group A and not Group H
It comes down to recent european rather than domestic performance.
I think Inter went further into the CL competition last year, if I’m not mistaken.
They forgot to mention Ruud’s legendary ability to party and get escorted out of places.
Curious how Milan ended up in Pot 2 when they won Serie A last season and Inter is in Pot 1? Any one have an explanation?
Arsenal was a finalist in 06, they always get past the group stage. The Prem co-efficient is very high..
Pretty simple really.
hahah. LIKE A BOSS!!
Seriously — How is Arsenal one of the seeded sides?
It’s fitting that Arsenal is picked last for pot 1.
B for Big noses.
Manchester United is in Group C? Nooooo…
Sadly this year you seem to be right. 🙁
Haters gonna hate, the man is a champion! Walking on stage like a boss.
Puyol shows up to deliver the cup in a yellow barca polo and shorts and tennis shoes….MY GOD, who let him go on stage like that?
Puyol is my hero for that outfit, plus the hair. they should give him a trophy just for that.
Arsenal is a pot 2 team at the most.
Haha, everyone’s in suits and my boy Puyol strolls up in a groc Barca polo!
Woo, the lights are low! I’m so AMPED right now looking at all the UEFA fat cats in the crowd!
In the words of Talib Kweli, “There are a lot of folks here who have invested a lot of credit to ensure that they have a fine time when the time is right!”