UEFA Champions League 2009/10 Thread

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's starting to look like the English clubs have got easy (or at least slightly easier) draws, whilst the rest of Europe's top teams (Inter, Barce, Milan, Madrid, Bayern, Juventus etc. are going to be facing tough opposition. Likely one of them groups are going to get Wolfsberg too.

[Baddar]

Ugh. Favourable 2nd seeds, unfavourable 4th seeds.

[Xero Gravity]

Definitely could have ended up a lot worse, so I can't complain about our group.

[IAceI]

Fourth Seeds & Completed Draw

A: Bayern, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

B: Man Utd, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg

C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, Zurich

D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan

G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni

H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege

Hello and welcome Zurich, Debrecen and Rubin, enjoy your stay in the Champions League; please bend over and leave your pants by the door.

Group G is a glorified Europa League group more than anything. All English teams should come through as Champions but B, D and E will have good battles for second place you'd imagine. I think Man Utd should get through easy enough but I don't want to say who'll be second out of them lot. Porto & Atletico in D will be hard to call and I'd expect Lyon to get through in E but can't rule out La Viola.

Arsenal have it pretty easy.

AC Milan vs. Real Madrid and Inter Milan vs. Barcelona have got to the mouth watering ties of the tournament. Might take presidence over English teams when they come around to watch.

Edited August 27, 2009 by IAceI

[Baddar]

Why were Sevilla in pot 1 ahead of Real if it goes on past CL performances? Haven't Sevilla been in it like...once or twice before?

[IAceI]

It's on past European performances in the past 5 years.

Real can't get past the QF and Sevilla have won the UEFA Cup twice.

I think it's a bit silly because Inter and Real > Sevilla but it made it a bit more interesting at least.

[Captain Kirk]

It's on past European performances in the past 5 years.

Real can't get past the QF and Sevilla have won the UEFA Cup twice.

I think it's a bit silly because Inter and Real > Sevilla but it made it a bit more interesting at least.

Results say otherwise.

[IAceI]

Inter and Real Madrid are better football teams than Sevilla. They just are.

It makes it a bit more interesting coz we have those big Italy vs. Spain matches, but it leaves us with a comical Group G.

[Colossus]

If Van Gaal gets his shit together (and Van Der Vaart), Bayern has a real show at winning 5 games in the group, and going to the final...

[Dynamite]

Trips to Russia and Turkey won't be too nixe a couple of days before and after a Premiership match but we could have got harder ties elsewhere I suppose. People may say we have an easy group but the teams will be a lot harder to beat than it initially looks.

[Captain Kirk]

Hardly a comical group, I fail to see what's wrong with Sevilla, Rangers and Stuttgart.

Unirea Urziceni I give you but for that blame Platini.

[Baddar]

Gay. I'd say losing at the Group Stage of the CL should earn you more points than winning the Uefa Cup. It's a higher level altogether, so it just should. :/

[IAceI]

Hardly a comical group, I fail to see what's wrong with Sevilla, Rangers and Stuttgart.

Unirea Urziceni I give you but for that blame Platini.

Just because there all middling teams really Sevilla are like 5/6 (in terms of whose the best) in Spain and Stuttgart down the order in Germany too I believe (arguably worse than Wolfsburg, Bayern.. possibly even Hertha, Werder?) Rangers and Unirea are 1/2 in Scotland and Romania. So it just lacks.. anything of interest really. I expect Sevilla and Stuttgart to go through. And we get to see Dan Petrescu again so that's a plus point I suppose.

Gay. I'd say losing at the Group Stage of the CL should earn you more points than winning the Uefa Cup. It's a higher level altogether, so it just should. :/

Exactly.

Edited August 27, 2009 by IAceI

[Captain Kirk]

I'm not bothered as it was the best possible draw for Rangers to get, but Sevilla have a cracking team and so do Stuttgart.

[IAceI]

Which is why I expect both of them to qualify. But it does look something reminiscent of an old UEFA Cup Group Stage as opposed to a Champions League group.

[austin 3:16]

A: Bayern, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

As a Juventus fan I consider this draw quite lucky. To be honest I fear Bourdeaux more than Bayern becuase they've got great pieces of talent (Gourcuff and Chamakh among all) and a good style of playing.

B: Man Utd, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg

Well, Man Utd should go easy here, despite going to Russia isn't always the best considering weather conditions there around CL games happen. Think CSKA (Wagner Love ) and Wolfsburg will contend the second place.

C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, Zurich

Milan vs Real is still an awesome game just for the history behind them, also Milan vs Marseille is really interesting. Milan has lost a lot of his power after this transfer session but I think they can manage to go on in the tournament.

D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Like Group B, one team surely in the First Knockout Round (Chelsea) and other two struggling for the second ticket (Atletico Madrid and Porto).

E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Could be like above, but we have to see if Liverpool can get again to his top form at home and in Europe. Hope that "I Viola" will beat Lyon, last year they knock them out with Benzema, this year is different.

F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan

They call it destiny, don't they ? Hell of a match-up, the Ukrainian and the Russian challenge for the EL spot. Beware of away games in the cold cold lands, however.

G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni

The most equilibrated group IMHO. Except for the Unirea, none of these teams seems too far superior if compared to each other. Maybe Sevilla is one step above, but I could terribly wrong.

H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege

Arsenal above all, the battle for the second spot should be very well-fought.

[stokeriño]

Ah, some more games against Porto. Fun-fun.

A trip to Cyprus has some novelty to it, though.

[IAceI]

I think Lyon may do quite well, I like this Lisandro Lopez, he's settled in quickly and I think it's always risky to underestimate the French sides. Unfortunately I can't see my Marseille doing much with that group, I'm just hoping Dede gives some good performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, I think the top two is a conclusion but that doesn't mean the Milan/Marseille and Madrid/Marseille matches can't still be entertaining. No reason they have to be 3-0 victories.

I have to say, for all the grief I've given him, I do like this idea from Platini. I think we have a nice balance of teams in, sure the Pot 4 teams are just there to make up the numbers but it's nice to see some new faces in there and you never know who might be found. My main worry is - in five years time is it just going to be the same teams coming through but looking at the play offs, they were quite closely contested and I suppose it does give some actual Champions a chance to get through and try their hand against the worlds best. Plus it hasn't adversely effected any English, Italian or Spanish teams it seems so maybe it's not all bad?

[NotoriousGTT]

Rangers couldnt have come out better if they selected the teams themselves. I think the Gers are in with a real shout of advancing from that section. 3rd and a Europa League at worst.

[stokeriño]

UEFA overturn Eduardo's ban

And all it took was a couple of weeks of everyone in the footballing world telling them how ridiculous it was.