Draws were announced today and as widely feared two English teams Liverpool and Chelsea were drawn together in the most tough group alongwith Real Betis. Teams normally get country protection but due to special persmission for Liverpool to defend their crown they were not given country protection.
GROUP A
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Club Brugge
Rapid Vienna
GROUP B
Arsenal
Ajax
Sparta Prague
Thun
GROUP C
Barcelona
Panathinaikos
Werder Bremen
Udinese
GROUP D
Man Utd
Villarreal
Lille
Benfica
GROUP E
AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven
Schalke
Fenerbahce
GROUP F
Real Madrid
Lyon
Olympiakos
Rosenborg
GROUP G
Liverpool
Chelsea
Anderlecht
Real Betis
GROUP H
Inter Milan
Porto
Rangers
Artmedia Bratislava
Group G is the hardest one no doubt. Real Betis are a great team and play the spanish brand plus Anderlecht are no pushovers either. Chelsea’s multi million team is amongst the favourites and Liverpool are defending champions. Looking forward to some mouth watering clashes in Group F and Group E.
Group A and Group C seems hardest to me. Group G is difficult too, from an English perspective. Italian giants (Milan, Juventus) and Madrid always enter as ultimate favorites.
i think Group E is the "group of death"
pretty open group.
AC Milan will no doubt be favourites to qualify and i think Schalke will join them
PSV Eindhoven gave ACM a scare late on in the second leg of their semi last season.
Fenebache got some class players who can turn it on...Tuncay, Anelka etc.
but keeping the faith, LFC will again prevail and lift the trophy in may. Allez Les Rouges.
I agree that Gourp E is no doubt a difficult one. Schalke is a VERY good team. I have seen some of their matches and unlike most german sides, they play a very open game. But i dont think Fenerbache will give any ruropean team scares.
Group C? well I follow Italian Football and Udinese is an average team. Same goes for Panathinaikos. Barca and Bremen should easily roll over those two but well european football nights are funny.
^ Panathinaikos is a good team. As for udinese, yes they might not be as good as Milan or Juventus, but Italian teams have an upper hand over German and Spanish oppositions. Italian defense is too hard for them to break and Italians can convert some chances they get. Barca and Bremen have better chances to advance from this group, but they will have a tough competition from others.
are there any channels in US that shows lots of internation soccer and league matches like EPL, spanish league, serie A, and champions trophy. we the less fortunate in america don't have the luxury to watch soccer regularly.
Panathinaikos rely too heavily on mercurial Iki Gonzalez and he cant carry them for too long. I am not even sure if he is still there.
Italian football is tactical while Spanish is more technical that is why more attractive to watch. Udinese are no pushovers I know but Breman is a good team and Barca.. definate favourites.
Italian soccer is tactical and technical (though defensive techinico). Spanish football is fast but not as technical as Italian Soccer. Each and every substitution in Italian soccer changes the way game is played. Spanish football is more fun to some people as it is fast and produces goals, while Italian football is often boring to them as it is quite defensive.
Udinese are no pushovers in italian soccer, where they have to break defensive as strong as Milan's or Juve's. For Barca and Bremen, two teams with poor defense, they have enough chances, though they will never be favorites.
Italians love their style of defensive play I forgot its name in Italian, right now. This is a style that is followed by most of the teams in Italy. The concentration will always be on defense but every substitution changes the way other players will act on the field, thus the game.
Let's talk about midfield. Defense is the ultimate priority in Italy. Midfielders are either defensive or aggressive. Whenever midfielder is changed, the playing order changes as well. Some players move back or forward, just after the substitution. This is just one example of Juve(with four midfielders and Pierro).
These are the preferred midfielders for Juve:
Emerson, Nedved, Camoranesi, Zambrotta
With Nedved and Zamborattaon field, Pierro plays as full striker. Zamborata defensive and aggressive. Nedved just aggressive. Game is counter attack.
(Camoranesi substituted for one of them): The other midfielder plays as a defensive midfielder. Camoranesi becomes the KEY man; the idea will be "possession". Pierro plays as a play maker (more as a midfielder).
(Emerson substituted for one of them): Emerson will bring the ball from behind. Pierro plays as playmaker on the side Emerson is playing, right or left. The other midfielder is on attack/defense. Game is "contain and pressure".
Sir, as regards to speed. the fastest one around is English one. Thats why people with blistering speeds are so successful there. Not much emphasis on ball control, dribbling. Italian football is NOT technical but tactical. Spanish football is widely regarded as technical because of more emphasis on ball control, dribbling and thus the spanish teams are oftern reffered as teams who play ‘total football’. Something that Italian teams can never claim to be. They are too tactical and yes tacitcally boring because they aim for clean sheets and eeking out 1-0 results rather than say a 3-2 victory.
This is why teams like Juve and Ac milan seldom face tough competition from other teams for scudetto because of their command on attacks. (only inter and roma do that once in a while). On the other hand, La liga is won by three different teams in last three years and everytime some new team is finishing second or third. Premiership, however is somewhat different from other leagues in europe.
I just said Spanish football is fast as compared to Italian, not the fastest. Yes English soccer is faster than Spanish.
Italian soccer is technical while they are trying to score the opener, after that it becomes a mixture of technical-tactical.
“Total Football” is Dutch invention and the last time this World witnessed the real “Total Football” was during the build-up of Ajax team of mid-90s and then the Dutch national team that was based on that Ajax team (with Bergkamp, DeBoers, Overmars, Kluivert,…). Even “Total Football” can be defensive as followed by Germany, at some stage.
English soccer is just “attacking”, not the actual “Total Football” in which each and every player plays his part in the game. Arsenal and recently Chelsea have managed to close the gap a bit by involving all players in the game.
Yes you are right, here. Inter under this new coach is a very different team; they too often go for attack. Roma also goes for attacking options but last season, they did not scored as much goals as they deserved. Thanks to Totti’s instincts of scoring the “Goal of the Weak” by striking from distance. Milan can play attack and defense, whenever they wish, but defense is preferred option.
La Liga is dominated by a few teams (6,7) like in Italy. Thee power in Italy is changing at times. Udinese has managed a champion’s league spot and they were not expected at the beginning of previous season.
German League is perhaps the most challenging league (amongst the top 5) as most teams are comparably ranked.
Yeah! This is my year. First I was just happy because my favourite local team Rapid Vienna won the Austrian championship. Then I was happy that they made it to the 3rd qualification round for the Champions League. And now I’m super happy, because they made it to the Champions League itself by beating Lokomotiv Mosow. :bhangra:
I’m realist enough to know that they won’t have any chance of qualifying for the next round, but having made it to the group stage is a big achievement for Rapid Vienna already. :bhangra:
some awesome encounters in prospect.
LFC v CSKA Chelski will be the ones to watch! hope we beat them again with 2 dubious goals, this time courtesy of the goal machines that are Jamie Carra-dona and Djimi Traore! thatd take the smile off maureen-ios smug face.
atmosphere at Anfield will again be as standard for european nights! atmosphere at stamford bridge will again be…well, flat!
could be some new records set this season. i feel Arsenal could batter Thun like a fried mars bar!
possible champions: AC Milan, CSKA Chelski, Barca, Juve and Inter.
god willing: LFC.
big game tonight against CFCs sister club CSKA Mockba. Stevie looks set to miss out due to injury, so expect Carra to capt the Red Army. cant wait!
whats up with the new rivalry in english football between pool and chelsea? Every discussion board I go, those two club fans are bickering at each other. yeah pool beat them in CL and chelsea in other matches but thats healthy for premiership.
it all stems from the premiership matches last season when CSKA cheated against LFC. in 2 games we had 3 stonewall penalty decisions turned down. decisions that couldve changed the games around. and then in the carling cup final when he tried ‘shushing’ the fans in a uber patronising manner. then later claiming he was doing it to the press! i was there and was sat next to some seriously pi55ed fellow reds.
then his comments before the CL semi games that made sound as if CSKA are already thru to the final. and then a few weeks ago Maureen-io ‘congratulated’ LFC but took 2/3 swipes at us in the same sentence to keep his arrogance level up to maximum.
money can buy players and success. but it doesnt buy you culture, tradition and passion that Liverpool have! <<<stuff that roman, peter and jose crave!
form is temporary, class is permanent!
Allez Les Rouges - YNWA
2005
Its more of a professional rivalry than heated as we have with Man U or Everton. Most fans were pissed at Fat Lampard for that horrific tackle that injured Alonso and then at Gudjonssen for diving in the 1st leg that got Alonso booked and suspended.
After the rosy events at Anfield in the return leg, we have no problem. We got our revenge and went onto bigger and better things in Istanbul Revenge is on Chelsea’s mind, not ours. We’re just out to teach the snobby gits that you can’t win everything with money, but pride and passion, the epitome of LFC
Red4life and Starsky. I get your point but I dont agree when you accuse chelsea of buying success. See ManU, Juventas and Real madrid all have achieved succeess in leagues by spending big money on players. Real havent won anything in last two seasons but they havent stopped spending or have they? :-p Chelsea deserve to win because they play quality football and for sure are new ‘Galacticos’.
Regarding Liverpool and Chelsea rivalry, chelsea might feel hard done by in second leg of CL semifinal but liverpool are equally stupid in thinking that Lampard intentinally took Xabi out (for example)
It would be great to see them cmpeting inso many matches this season. In cl, prermiership, even facup and carling cup.
thatd take the smile off maureen-ios smug face. 
