Champions League - Group Draw.

[Sheva]

Pot 1

Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, FC Porto, Inter Milan

Pot 2

AC Milan, Lyon, Shakthar Donetsk, Valencia, Benfica Lisbon, Villareal, CSKA Moscow, Marseille

Pot 3

Zenit St.Petersburg, Ajax Amsterdam, Leverkusen, Olympiakos Piraus, Lille, Basle, BATE Borisov, Manchester City

Pot 4

Dortmund, Napoli, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL Nicosia, Genk, Plzen, Otelui Galati, Trabzonspor

Who do you want to come up against?

Imagine this though for a group

Barcelona

AC Milan

Manchester City

Dortmund.

[Myles_91]

Pot 1

Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, FC Porto, Inter Milan

Pot 2

AC Milan, Lyon, Shakthar Donetsk, Valencia, Benfica Lisbon, Villareal, CSKA Moscow, Marseille

Pot 3

Zenit St.Petersburg, Ajax Amsterdam, Leverkusen, Olympiakos Piraus, Lille, Basle, BATE Borisov, Manchester City

Pot 4

Dortmund, Napoli, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL Nicosia, Genk, Plzen, Otelui Galati, Trabzonspor

Who do you want to come up against?

Imagine this though for a group

Barcelona

AC Milan

Manchester City

Dortmund.

That would be tasty. If Mancini persisted with his negative tactics I could easily see City not getting out of that group.

[ace]

I was literally just starting this thread! I was having trouble finding an easily copy and pasted list of the pots though, so I am glad I waited a couple minutes.

A chance for some reunions in the 2nd pot, with Mata getting to visit Valencia or our Benfica boys going back to Portugal. Would like to avoid Shaktar, as well as trips to Russia, and obviously the two stronger teams in the last pot.

[Myles_91]

The best we could hope for is

CHELSEA

Lyon

Basle

Genk

Dortmund, AC Milan and Zenit are definitely the ones to avoid, knowing our luck we'll draw them all.

[Sheva]

I wouldn't mind going to Valencia, obviously not the force they used to be but they are still a decent outfit.

Chelsea

Valencia

Ajax

Genk

Would be a nice group in my opinion, not long to travel and of course they will be challenging fixtures but in theory we should top that group.

[mrjhay]

Avoiding AC or Shaktar, wouldn't fancy Leverkusen or Zenit, as for final pool, avoid Dortmund and Napoli please...

I'd love City to get landed with Barca or Real...

[Myles_91]

Avoiding AC or Shaktar, wouldn't fancy Leverkusen or Zenit, as for final pool, avoid Dortmund and Napoli please...

I'd love City to get landed with Barca or Real...

Barca usually are not that good until the knock out stages, heck even I would still be confident of topping our group if we had Barca.

Generally Jose's teams like to get the business done early in the CL and I feel Real, not Barca are the team to avoid from Pot 1 closely followed by Barca, United, then ourselves, Arsenal and Inter.

[Myles_91]

One other thing that needs to be taken into consideration is that United Away, QPR Away and City at Home all fall after Champions League games so it would certainly be preferable to be at Home before those dates. I'm not bothered about QPR but for them playing us will be like a World Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and Euro Championship final rolled into one, we need to be on our toes for that one, slip ups have to be avoided and we play Arsenal 6 days after that.

I will be keeping a close eye on who plays who and when.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Myles_91

[TrojanMan]

Stick City and Dortmund in with Barca and hope that somehow they manage to prevent Barca from moving on. A longshot, I know. But it'd be nice.

[Crystal Phallus]

Best case scenario for us is one where we don't have to go all the way to Eastern Europe:

Chelsea

Benfica

Basle

APOEL

[Spiller86]

There are some difficult matchups in that draw. It perhaps has more sleeping giants than in recent years. Whoever gets Dortmund or Napoli for example are going to be rather upset. Particularly if they collect someone else not very nice as well.

Luckily for us Man City who are arguably the biggest sleepers below the top tier can't play us.

[Sparkz]

Ive always wanted us to play AC Milan

[mclovin83]

Ive always wanted us to play AC Milan

I would love a little trip to the San Siro, it's one ground I have not been to and I need to tick it off the list.

Oh... Dennis Wise.....scored a f**kin great goal.......

Would love it if City ended up getting Barca & Milan though- would be interesting!

[Eight Times]

Sod it, let's have a hard group, causing us to finish third and have a one off season in the Europa League, beating

Spurs in the final.

Far less stress.

[bjd]

Judging by recent years may I be the first to predict Arsenals group:

Arsenal

Benfica

Hartlepool United

Pippa Middleton

[dkw]

Judging by recent years may I be the first to predict Arsenals group:

Arsenal

Benfica

Hartlepool United

Pippa Middleton

They will definitely come 3rd in that, Benfica is a great side and Pippa is very tight at the back.......

[evissy]

They will definitely come 3rd in that, Benfica is a great side and Pippa is very tight at the back.......

Although they are not that big up front they still have a very formidable duo.

[german-blue]

I would like this group:

Chelsea

Benfica

Ajax

Dortmund

[bennyboy1976]

what time is the draw lads?

[Zola]

5pm,

This part of the Champions League is so dull, roll on the knockout stages

[KURT.5]

imagine barca,, milan, city, dortmund.. GOD (group of death).

[Zeta]

God would piss that group.

[bjd]

5pm,

This part of the Champions League is so dull, roll on the knockout stages

Im sure you wont be saying that this time next year if we finish 5th this season.

Lets not forget how far we have come so quickly to be involved in this competition each year and to be a regular seed!

It wasnt so long ago there was a pitch invasion at Stamford Bridge when we won an FA Cup Quarter Final (i was part of it!)

Edited August 25, 2011 by bjd

[Makelele]

Im sure you wont be saying that this time next year if we finish 5th this season.

Lets not forget how far we have come so quickly to be involved in this competition each year and to a regular seed!

It wasnt so long ago there was a pitch invasion at Stamford Bridge when we won an FA Cup Quarter Final (i was part of it!)

lol TRUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEE INDEEEEED!

[bjd]

God would piss that group.

Barca would still get the favorable decisions i bet....