I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ll be counting down the hours til 5 o’clock and the Champions League Group Stage draw.

It’s our seventh successive campaign and these draws don’t get any less exciting for me as the years go on.  Ok, so there’s some things we’ll always know about the Champions League – like, it’s almost written in stone we’ll  play Liverpool at some stage and give Rafa something else to rant about, and Barcelona always have 12 men against us (and we’re pretty likely to have just the 10) - but we haven’t got to think about all that yet.

Nope, today we can go into the draw full of hope and optimism – we’re seeded top, so we won’t have to worry about the likes of Liverpool and Barca anyway. We can sit on the edge of our seats as the names are drawn out at the rate of one per hour (with just a smidgeon of pomp and ceremony in between)……..and watch as we’re drawn out against Real Madrid.

TheChelseaBlog will nevertheless endeavour (between sobs) to bring you the draw as soon as it happens.

Filed under: Europe