After some thrills and spills in the qualifying stages, the draw takes place today in Monaco for the group stages of Europe’s premier competition and JOE runs the rule over what might come to pass.
Arsenal enjoyed a Turkey stuffing when disposing of Fenerbahce, while Celtic had a far more nervy affair before a dramatic late goal at Parkhead saw the Bhoys seal their passage into the group stages, while also allowing Neil Lennon to prove he hasn’t lost all his pace after his celebrations on the sideline. They joined the eight other winners in the qualifying stages to take their place with 22 other teams for the draw in France today.
All roads lead to Lisbon next May but of course a difficult draw can leaves clubs with their hopes in tatters even before the knock-out stages. You need only ask Roberto Mancini for confirmation.
The draw begins at 4.45, which we will be live blogging, and besides getting to see some stalwarts from Champions League campaigns of yesteryear and look at some smug directors when their side gets a plum draw, we will finally get to build up to the campaign proper.
There are four pots of eight teams, with the teams seeded by UEFA’s coefficient rankings. Which means that although Arsenal had to qualify, they take their place in pot one, while last year’s finalists Borussia Dortmund take their place in pot three, where they have Manchester City and Ajax for company. Teams from the same country cannot be paired together.
What will Celtic’s reward be after a dramatic qualifying win over Shahktar Karagandy?
Pot one is the crème de la crème, plus Porto and Benfica, who Celtic will be eyeing up from pot four. The potential for a ‘group of death’ is very high considering the teams mentioned in the third pot and the fact that Napoli are in pot four. The same Napoli who, having lost Edinson Cavani, had a triple raid on Real Madrid for Jose Callejon, Raul Albiol and Gonzalo Higuain for just shy of €60 million, and also brought in Pepe Reina on loan. They should pose more of a challenge than say Viktoria Plezen and Austria Vienna, for example.
Manuel Pellegrini will be conscious of the fact that City could well be in for a similar repeat of last year’s difficult draw given the fact that they are in pot three, while his Manchester counterpart David Moyes will be hoping for the kind draw that Fergie used to get on a regular basis for his first stint in the group stages.
For Celtic, a dream group would be Benfica, Marseilles and Olympiakos, but they could also face Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Manchester City. Not that any side will be looking forward to playing in front of a raucous crowd at Parkhead.
As we said, we will be live blogging from Monaco from around 4pm, but before then, get yourself acquainted with the seedings and feel free to come up with any fantasy groups of death of your own.
Pot One
Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica
Pot Two
Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Shahktar Donetsk, Schalke, Marseilles, CSKA Moscow, PSG, Juventus
Pot Three
Zenit St. Petersburg, Man City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Basle, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen
Pot Four
FC Copenhagen, Napoli, Anderlecht, Celtic, Steaua Bucharest, Viktoria Plezen, Real Sociedad, Austria Vienna
