Champions League Group Stage Draw

BaZ87 · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:38

The draw for the CL group stage is on tomorrow at 5pm and by the looks of things, it could be pretty interesting. With the likes of Real, Inter, Lyon and Juve in Pot 2 and Atletico in Pot 3, there's the potential for some seriously hard groups:

Pot 1

Barcelona (ESP)
Liverpool (ENG)
Chelsea (ENG)
Manchester United (ENG)
AC Milan (ITA)
Arsenal (ENG)
Sevilla (ESP)
Bayern Munich (GER)

Pot 2

Olympique Lyon (FRA)
Internazionale (ITA)
Real Madrid (ESP)
CSKA Moscow (RUS)
FC Porto (POR)
AZ Alkmaar (NED)
Juventus (ITA)
Glasgow Rangers (SCO)

Pot 3

Olympiakos (GRE)
Olympique Marseille (FRA)
Dinamo Kiev (UKR)
VfB Stuttgart (GER)
Fiorentina (ITA)
Atletico Madrid (ESP)
Girondins Bordeaux (FRA)
Besiktas (TUR)

Pot 4

VfL Wolfsburg (GER)
Standard Liege (BEL)
Maccabi Haifa (ISR)
FC Zurich (SUI)
Rubin Kazan (RUS)
Unirea Urziceni (ROM)
APOEL (CYP)
Debrecen (HUN)

Worst case for any of the English sides would probably be Inter, Atletico and Wolfsburg and best case would be Rangers, Bordeaux and Zurich.

Visionary · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:39

Can you get games against teams in the same country?

i.e. Man U, Real, Atletico, Wolfsburg?

Edit- I guess not judging by your best/worst groups

Tute · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:45

I think most of the danger is in Pot 2. I can't see any of the teams in Pots 3 and 4 troubling the big sides.

[Edit] I don't really want Intel, Real, Porto or Juve - any of the others I wouldn't mind.

Visionary · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:50

I'm hoping for Sevilla, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos and APOEL

BaZ87 · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:57

Tute said:
I think most of the danger is in Pot 2. I can't see any of the teams in Pots 3 and 4 troubling the big sides.

[Edit] I don't really want Intel, Real, Porto or Juve - any of the others I wouldn't mind.

Although any of the English sides would go in as favourites to qualify, Atletico are a very good side and more than capable of causing an upset. If either Inter, Lyon or Juve get drawn in the same group as Atletico then that group's going to be wide open.

Greenlizard0 · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:58

How are Alkmaar in pot two? Teams in pot three have done better than them in recent years.

Visionary · 26 Aug 2009 at 23:59

Greenlizard0 said:
How are Alkmaar in pot two? Teams in pot three have done better than them in recent years.

Won the league.

And PSV normally do well in Europe which boosts the Dutch league's rating.

BaZ87 · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:00

AFAIK that counts for nothing (well very little). It's all to do with your performance in Europe over the last 5 seasons.

Visionary · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:00

BaZ87 said:
AFAIK that counts for nothing (well very little). It's all to do with your performance in Europe over the last 5 seasons.

Well they beat Newcastle in the UEFA Cup quarters(?) a couple of seasons ago, so I guess that helps a bit.

BaZ87 · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:02

Yea. Here's the Uefa club rankings:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2009.html

edit: it would appear that AZ are in Pot 2 thanks to a lot of clubs ranked higher than them not making it into the CL.

Visionary · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:04

Newcastle = 30th best in Europe.

Can't argue with that.

BaZ87 · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:05

Spurs are 29th though

Visionary · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:06

BaZ87 said:
Spurs are 29th though

Misleading stats tbh!

Shamikebab · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:14

Would not want Atletico or Fiorentina, get them and a tough Pot 2 team and you could be in for a very difficult group.

Ripper · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:30

Would love to get Real.

Tummy · 27 Aug 2009 at 00:47

Manchester United V Real.

Dooo eeeeet !

anksta · 27 Aug 2009 at 12:37

Why are Inter in pot 2 when they won the league? Didn't Milan finish 3rd or something as well? I thought it was league winners: pot A then 2nd pot B etc. with qualifiers or whatever finishing in respective lower pots.

Anyway, I wouldn't want Real at OT just yet, rather do them later, having said that, it might be a good time to play them now while they're just half an average team and 4 superstars, if they settle nicely and gel and whatnot then they could potentially walk it.

My guess is Barca are gonna be the team again this year, they could beat half the teams in the draw with just their front 3 and Xavi and Iniesta behind them.

I love the Champions League, the atmosphere at games is just amazing every time everywhere. I love it when it gets to quarter final stage and all the teams left in are mint (except Liverpool who will have stuffed their way there again

) and its loads of games that nearly always have bare goals and mint play.

jrodga2k5 · 27 Aug 2009 at 15:12

anksta said:
Why are Inter in pot 2 when they won the league? Didn't Milan finish 3rd or something as well? I thought it was league winners: pot A then 2nd pot B etc. with qualifiers or whatever finishing in respective lower pots.

Well it's not that simple mate.

Inter havent done well enough in Europe over the previous 5 seasons and that's where the coefficients come from. Milan however have done well and always went quite far and are ahead due to this.

Check out my team Rangers for example, sitting pretty in Pot 2 and all because we had two good Uefa Cup runs.....one of course reaching the final and a last 16 CL in there so that's why we are so high up.

Bonus for Rangers is that we miss Real but I really wanted to play them this season as it would be terrific to see them even if we did get absolutely stuffed

The Group I'm after for Qualification is.....

Sevilla
RANGERS
Olympiakos
APOEL

This in my view would give us a great chance in all honesty of reaching the last 16 this season.

No doubt we'll get landed with something akin to this....

Barcelona
RANGERS
Fiorentina
VfL Wolfsburg

lol!

Tombstone · 27 Aug 2009 at 16:25

I want Real Madrid in our group.

AGD · 27 Aug 2009 at 16:37

We'll get inter and man u or liverpool will have real. Don't want athletico in our group and I thought bordeaux were better than marseilles? Pot 4 is quite interesting now since the new rules - haven't heard of some of them though.