Champions League Draw: Has It Been Kind To Us?

Posted on August 28th, 2009 by Chelsea D

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)

Filed under: Europe

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3 Responses to “Champions League Draw: Has It Been Kind To Us?”

  1. Leslie Tinashe Chingosho, on August 28th, 2009 at 13:23 Said:

    In this group, both FC Porto and Atletico should be our biggest challengers. I’m very sorry if you are a supporter of Apoel FC, but I’m ruling them out of this group. They will be the whipping boys of this group. Effectively, it means that scores the most goals against them will win this group. This group is very tough for them. I am very confident that we will finish as group winners and hopefully it won’t be like last season were we struggled in what should have been an easy group for us.

  2. MGD, on August 28th, 2009 at 13:45 Said:

    I think Porto & Athletico’s keepers are suspect. I do not fear either of those 2 teams. They just dont have the defense to keep up with Chelsea’s offense and ball possession.

  3. blueblood, on August 29th, 2009 at 01:49 Said:

    helton for porto is dodgy.asenjo is a good 20year old keeper for madrid.i just hope forlan and aguero are off form when we play them. I dont fear the team. .just them.arsenal got it easx(AGAIN!).at least the manc got it the worst.wolfsburg must be champions for a reason and moscow.what ever happened to our interest with wagner love. .