Man City get landed in the Champions League Group of Death… again
We’re pretty sure UEFA have nothing personal against Manchester City, but it would appear that way after they were drawn in the Champions League Group of Death for the second season in a row.
Bobby Mancini’s side will have to pit their wits against the Champions of both Spain and Germany, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, in Group D, while the fourth team in the group, Ajax, are hardly cannon fodder either.
In stark contrast to Citeh, Manchester United were handed their traditional easy-looking draw and will go head to head with Galatasaray, FC Braga and CFR Cluj, although their experiences from last season should have taught Fergie a lesson and he won’t be taking it as lightly this time around.
Elsewhere, Champions Chelsea will have to face Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk in Group E and we’d guess that Arsenal fans will be pretty happy with a group consisting of Schalke, Olympiakos and Montpellier.
It was a either a brilliant or a terrible draw from a Celtic perspective depending which way you look at it; brilliant in that Messi, Iniesta and company will be coming to Celtic Park at some stage, terrible in that the Hoops are highly unlikely to qualify from a group which also features Benfica and Spartak Moscow, whose presence will of course give Aiden McGeady the chance to return to his old stomping ground.
The groups in full are listed below and the games will get underway on September 18. That’s our Tuesday and Wednesday nights sorted until Christmas anyway. Lovely stuff.
Group A:
Porto
Dynamo Kiev
Paris St. Germain
Dinamo Zagreb
Group B:
Arsenal
Schalke
Olympiakos
Montpellier
Group C:
AC Milan
Zenit St. Petersburg
Anderlecht
Malaga
Group D:
Real Madrid
Manchester City
Ajax
Borussia Dortmund
Group E:
Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk
Juventus
Nordsjaelland
Group F:
Bayern Munich
Valencia
Lille
BATE Borisov
Group G:
Barcelona
Benfica
Spartak Moscow
Celtic
Group H:
Manchester United
Braga
Galatasaray
CFR Cluj
