Champions League Draw: Has It Been Kind To Us?

Well, the group stages have been drawn and I suppose it’s been kind-ish to us. I’m not sure Atletico Madrid won’t cause us a few problems but otherwise we should be ok. So let’s have a look at what we’re up against:

CHELSEA (Group D): Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Apoel Nicosia

Ok, Porto we know about. We’ve played them a couple of times so there shouldn’t be any surprises there really.  Cypriot side Nicosia, we don’t know so much about but irrespective of whether the press regard them as minnows in the group or not, after our showing against CFR Cluj last year, I certainly won’t be writing them off before we’ve met them.  Personally though, I think our biggest test will come against Atletico Madrid, certainly defensively anyway and we’ll have a battle on our hands for top spot as far as they’re concerned.

As for the other Premier League sides, Manchester United will come up against German Champions Wolfsburg and will be racking up the air miles for their away trips against CSKA Moscow and Besiktas. Liverpool and Arsenal have been well looked after, with Liverpool facing Benzema-less Lyon, Serie A’s fourth paced Fiorentina and Hungary’s Debreceni and Arsenal drawn against Olympiakos, Standard Liege and AZ Alkmaar.

Draw in full:

GROUP A

Bayern Munich (Ger)
Juventus (Ita)
Bordeaux (Fra)
Maccabi Haifa (Isr)

GROUP B

Manchester United (Eng)
CSKA Moscow (Rus)
Besiktas (Tur)
Wolfsburg (Ger)

GROUP C

AC Milan (Ita)
Real Madrid (Spa)
Marseille (Fra)
FC Zurich (Swi)

GROUP D

Chelsea (Eng)
FC Porto (Por)
Atletico Madrid (Spa)
APOEL (Cyp)

GROUP E

Liverpool (Eng)
Lyon (Fra)
Fiorentina (Ita)
Debreceni (Hun)

GROUP F

Barcelona (Spa)
Internazionale (Ita)
Dynamo Kiev (Ukr)
Rubin Kazan (Rus)

GROUP G

Sevilla (Spa)
Rangers (Sco)
VFB Stuttgart (Ger)
Unirea Urziceni (Rom)

GROUP H

Arsenal (Eng)
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiacos (Gre)
Standard Liege (Bel)