:: European CL Draw ::
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Group A
LIVERPOOL
Porto
Marseille
Besiktas
Group B
CHELSEA
Valencia
Schalke
Rosenborg
Group C
REAL MADRID
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiacos
Group D
AC MILAN
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk
Group E
BARCELONA
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers
Group F
MANCHESTER UNITED
Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kiev
Group G
INTER MILAN
PSV Eindhoven
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbache
Group H
ARSENAL
Sevilla/AEK Athens
Steaua Bucharest
Slavia Prage
So wad do u guys think?
We have a v good chance for the knock out stage... Milan.. ironically got such a easy group in my opinion. Man Utd will defintely face AS Roma with much hostile... how will Arsenal fare? -
not an easy ride for liverpool with Porto and Marseille in the group even if they qualify it won't be by a large margin
but of course if Porto choose to sell Ricardo Quaresma to us then it will become a easy ride for liverpool -
Still almost the same old teams to face for some English and Scottish teams ....
MU meet Roma again ...
Celtic meet AC Milan again ...
Arsenal face Slavia Prague , or Sparta Prague ??
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Djilbril Cisse and Bolo Zenden's Marseille against us ....
Destiny ....
Cisse must have mixed feelings now .... -
I am very happy with the draw ....
Anyway , at this stage , Liverpool are too strong for these 3 teams .
I don't see any clear & tough competitions coming from them .
The toughest test is when we play those European Elites .
Sorry to Porto's , Marseille's and Besiktas' fans , these 3 teams really no where near our standard . -
Arsenal & MU has got the toughest group i think ....
Sevilla , Slavia Prague and S.Bucuresti not easy team , espcially Sevilla .
MU to play Sporting Lisbon , Nani's former club i think . And also Roma , MU and Roma loves each other . And Dynamo Kiev , the weakest team in the group .
Sevilla's Kanoute is coming back to haunt Arsenal again , when he was once a darling of Spurs .
Also Fabregas know a bit of Sevilla being Spanish ...
Good for Arsenal , Thomas Rosicky has got some good friends at Slavia Prague .
MU will go thru along with Roma ....
And Chelsea has got themselves a relative easy opponents . Valencia u might asked , easy ? I would say easy , this Valencia is not the Valencia we saw a few years back . -
Group A: Liverpool, Porto, Marseille and Besiktas
Base on reports , sounds like Liverpool has got the easiest group , difficult rating 6/10 .
Difficulty rating: 6
Liverpool have been handed one of the easier groups on paper, like last year when they found themselves against the likes of Bordeaux and PSV. They should qualify with at least a game to spare, but rafa will be wary of resting too many players. A shock reverse in Porto or Marseille, and they be in tricky territory.
Simply put, they will not want to finish second at any cost. The battle for second place will be very very tight. Porto and Marseille will start slight favourites, but if Besiktas can get some consistency going and win their home games, it will be very even tighter.
Group B: Chelsea, Valencia, Schalke and Rosenborg
Difficulty rating: 8.5
This is undoubtedly one of the biggest groups. Valencia were the toughest of the groups not among the top eight seeds, and will meet Chelsea in a repeat of last season's tight Champions League quarter-final.
Schalke only just lost out on the Bundesliga last year, and will be no pushovers. They will be ready to pick up the pieces from the top two, and a couple of good home wins could see them become a big factor. Rosenborg, with all due respect, will bring up the rear, hoping to cause an upset or two along the way.
It will be very interesting to see who wins the group. There was almost nothing to separate Chelsea and Valencia last season, and both play similar football too. Interestingly, the Blues have never quite had it easy. They faced Liverpool in the group stage two years ago, and Barcelona last year.
Group C: Real Madrid, Werder Bremen, Lazio and Olympiakos
Difficulty rating: 7
A rather exciting group that contains some quality teams from across Europe! Real Madrid will be the favourites on paper, but as Werder showed last season by beating Chelsea and nearly beating Barcelona, they will be no easy pickings.
If Lazio do not pick up injuries given their limited squad, they can be expected to put up quite a resistance. Olympiakos are always dangerous, and will sniff an outside chance of making it through, though a very outside one.
Real Madrid should win this barring disaster. Lazio and Werder will have to fight hard to beat each other, particularly with Oly. lurking in the background.
Group D: AC Milan, Benfica, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk
Difficulty rating: 7.5
Milan, like Chelsea, get one of their knock-out stage opponents in Celtic. The defending champions have an easy group on paper, and should cruise through if they bring anything close to their A game into the tournament.
That said, trips away to Celtic and Shakhtar will be very tricky, given the massive weather change. It could be cold and wet, or worse, frozen.
Benfica and Celtic found themselves in the same group last season, and with Shakhtar unlikely to drop too many points at home, it will be a very close battle for second place.
The presence of Lucarelli and Nery Castillo in Shakhtar's ranks suggests the Ukrainians could be the dark horses for second place. If you get good odds, take it!
Group E: Barcelona, Lyon, Stuttgart, Rangers
Difficulty rating: 8
On the face of it, this one looks like a positive group for Barcelona. However, with French and German champions to contend with, and a triky trip to Glasgow also in store, there is absolutely no room for error. They qualified on the final day last season after some early reverses, and will be wary of just that.
Stuttgart and Lyon will, on paper, compete for second place, but a home win over Barcelona, and you never know. They can be very tricky, particularly if the Catalans continue to struggle. It will be a pity to see one of the two go into the Uefa Cup.
Rangers, meanwhile, will be left ruing their luck. They will be ready for the battle, make no mistake, and they can compete with Lyon and Stuttgart on their day, but they will surely wonder what they did to deserve such a tricky group.
Barcelona and Lyon are early favourites, but with Alain Perrin's team without quite a few of their stars at the moment, some through injury, a bet on Stuttgart could be a wise one.
Group F: Manchester United, Roma, Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev.
Difficulty rating: 8.5
This group is undoubtedly the most exciting one. With Roma and Manchester United expected to provide us with nothing but more fireworks (hopefully only on the pitch this time around), one cannot wait for the action to begin.
Nani and Ronaldo will be re-united with their old clubs when the Red Devils face Sporting, but the twist in the take could come thanks to Dynamo Kiev.
While they remain outsiders to qualify, their sensational form in the always intimidating and chilly Kiev means that plenty of teams will drop points, points which could ultimately decide who qualifies and who does not.
On paper, Manchester United remain favourites ahead of Roma, but do not expect the remaining two to give way. It is unlikely to be decided before the final day. If Roma and United play out a couple of fiesty draws, get a couple suspended, and then one of them drops points in Kiev, there could well be a shock.
Group G: Inter Milan, PSV, CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce
Difficulty rating: 6.5
The Italian champions actually have one of the easier groups, like Liverpool. After being grouped with Bayern last time around, they will relish an easy passage.
That is exactly what lies in store unless we see more of what we saw against Udinese on Sunday. PSV are favourites for second place, but with tricky trips to Russia and Turkey, there are simply no guarantees.
CSKA showed against, Arsenal, Porto and Hamburg last year that they mean business, and they will do just that again. As for Fenerbahce, you never quite know what to expect.
Group H: Arsenal, Sevilla/AEK, Steaua Bucharest, Slavia Prague
Difficulty rating: 7
Arsenal seem to have been handed a reasonable draw, but so was the case last year when they found Porto, Hamburg and CSKA. The Gunners are more mature, but then they have a trickier opponent in the marauding Sevilla, who have been in sensational form.
The death of Antonio Puerta could upset them, but the chances are that it will only fire them up further, such is their mentality. Steaua and Slavia will have to come up with something really special to factor into the scheme of things.
Three rounds of action should be enough to pretty confirm the two teams that go will through, but the battle for first place in the group will be trickier than most believe.
MU has got a 8.5/10 rating . -
Yeah. On paper, Liverpool seems to have it easier than the other English teams. Porto may not be as dangerous as Valencia, Sevilla or Roma. But still, we should not be too complacent about it.
IMHO, the most crucial match is the first match, which is Porto away. If we can get something out of that match, then most likely we should progress without any problem. Losing that match will dent their confidence for the remaining matches and makes progress more difficult. -
man utd group sound more like 6 to me how can sporting and kiev be any threat to ManU Or Roma ? i know they are not that good in europe in recent years but surely not that bad ? consider that Sporting sold 2 talents to them and that Kiev is not that good
and liverpool group 7 -
easy?
easiest are D and G.
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a decent draw, but must be careful of complacent.
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The difficulty rating is based on each team. Not the strongest against weakestOriginally posted by ghimpheng:man utd group sound more like 6 to me how can sporting and kiev be any threat to ManU Or Roma ? i know they are not that good in europe in recent years but surely not that bad ? consider that Sporting sold 2 talents to them and that Kiev is not that good
and liverpool group 7
(I say no shooting of other forumites if not you may leave) -
Easy or difficult will depend on the morale and form of the team.
So, it is all in the mind of the players.
As for the present Liverpool squad, I believe we can make it top of the group if the strikers are firing goal instead of blanks. -
Come on... 10 goals in 4 games is not bad at all...
2 for Villa
1 for Chelsea (very well worked)
1 for Toulouse (Under the 40 degrees hot weather)
2 for Sunderland (Not to mention, we really should have put in more goals)
4 for return leg against Toulouse
2+1+1+2+4=10
I think, we are doing very well.
As Shankly once said there are only 2 teams in Merseyside, Liverpool and the Liverpool reserves.
Well, I do think that our B team can even give Everton a big challenge too you know.
Yea, its true there are times... we should have scored more goals but lets rmb, we are not yet a team as yet. We just started, and this is just the beginning...
The signs are good, we are indeed heading towards the right direction for another glory era under Rafalution!
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it's not difficult to progress into the next phase for us ....
Just win 4 games and 2 draws are good enough to progress .
Win all 3 home games and win at least 1 away .... the rest as what people say , doesn't matter much .
I just know what Benitez's plan after 2 seasons of UCL .
12 points or 11 points are good enough . Even 10 points as second also can liao . -
I'veseen Marseille played against Nice ? Last week on Ch-107 i think .....
I think France league is like English Championship divison standard for me ....
I think the standard it's like ..... if i sent in WBA or Preston NorthEnd , i think WBA & Preston NE can beat them .
Yeah , that kind of standard .
Now i understand why Gerard Houllier quit , and i know why Cisse cannot perform in England .
Because Cisse are made for just that kind of level .
Also , Toulouse is a clear example . Toulouse was France last season's form team , but when they played against us , they're like Amateur team to us .
Only maybe Lyon can match us , but not any team below Lyon . -
As for Porto .... they might need some help from Jose and still will lose to us .
I think they are losing a bit of their flair since Jose left .
I honestly only feared Besiktas ..... cos on a good day , Galatasaray also cannot match them .
I don't think Besiktas will be bottom of the table after 6 matches , the last place team could be Marseille .
I won't be surprised if Liverpool and Beksitas goes thru the next round .
Mark my word . -
jose might be giving his former club some tips in hope of porto to knock them off.Originally posted by Poolman:As for Porto .... they might need some help from Jose and still will lose to us .
I think they are losing a bit of their flair since Jose left .
I honestly only feared Besiktas ..... cos on a good day , Galatasaray also cannot match them .
I don't think Besiktas will be bottom of the table after 6 matches , the last place team could be Marseille .
I won't be surprised if Liverpool and Beksitas goes thru the next round .
Mark my word .
jose fears pool more than he fear for man u. -
i have a bad feeling that Liverpool and Chelsea will meet again!!!
Hopefully, Chelsea will win this time!!! -
Chelsea better pray hard .... to avoid us , or else ..... it will happen once again , 3-in-a-row !!!!Originally posted by Seven_Dragon:i have a bad feeling that Liverpool and Chelsea will meet again!!!
Hopefully, Chelsea will win this time!!!
Do u know how Chelsea manage to get a point from us ? A penalty !!
Open play ????? We had yet to concede a goal from open play this season . -
yeah, chelsea better pray hard! history shown dat even though they beat pool in most of epl matches, but cruel fact dat they were knocked out most of cup competition matches whenever they face pool.Originally posted by Poolman:Chelsea better pray hard .... to avoid us , or else ..... it will happen once again , 3-in-a-row !!!!
Do u know how Chelsea manage to get a point from us ? A penalty !!
Open play ????? We had yet to concede a goal from open play this season . -
the table so far:
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thks thks thks thks