Champions League 2010/2011 Group Stage Draw

ctrl-alt-delete

With the lineup for the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage complete it is now time to look forward to the draw which takes place at at 5PM on Thursday in Monaco.

The 32 clubs have been split into four seeding pots as follows:


Pot 1

FC Internazionale Milano
FC Barcelona
Manchester United FC
Chelsea FC
Arsenal FC
FC Bayern München
AC Milan
Olympique Lyonnais

Pot 2

SV Werder Bremen
Real Madrid CF
AS Roma
FC Shakhtar Donetsk
SL Benfica
Valencia CF
Olympique de Marseille
Panathinaikos FC

Pot 3

Tottenham Hotspur FC
Rangers FC
AFC Ajax
FC Schalke 04
FC Basel 1893
SC Braga
FC København
FC Spartak Moskva


Pot 4

Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC
FC Twente
FC Rubin Kazan
AJ Auxerre
CFR 1907 Cluj
FK Partizan
MŠK Žilina
Bursaspor



Rules of the Draw:

Ten play-off winners join the 22 automatic entrants in the group-stage draw at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, with the 32 sides split into four seeding pots and one from each drawn into the eight groups. Seeds are based on UEFA's coefficient system and no team can meet another from the same association.

Where two sides from the same association have qualified, they will be paired to split their matches between Tuesday and Wednesday, so one club will always play at home on one day and the other will play away on the other day. In the case of associations with three representatives, only two teams have been paired in terms of their fixtures; in the case of associations with four representatives, two pairings have been made based on the TV audience.

To ensure sides from the same country play on separate days, the eight groups will be distinguished by colour: Groups A-D will be red and Groups E-H blue. When a paired club is drawn, for example, into one of the red groups, the other paired club – once it has been drawn – will automatically be assigned to one of the four blue groups.

Teams from Pot 1 will be provisionally placed in the first position within their groups, teams from Pot 2 will provisionally take the second spot in their sections, and so on. Once the draw has been completed, a computer draw will determine the final position of the sides within their group and therefore the order of the home and away matches.

GavRedKing

Real Madrid in Pot 2 will screw some teams over :eek:

I just hope we, Chelsea, can avoid them. Pot 3 has some banana skins also if you draw a big team in Pot 2.

Id hope for a draw of :

Chelsea
Panathinaikos FC
Rangers
Bursaspor

Although it probably will be :

Chelsea
Real Madrid
Schalke 04
Rubin Kazaan

Liam O

worst draw for Arsenal/Chelsea/United is Real, Schalke/Ajax and Auxerre. Pot 4 is Incredibly weak this season...

For Spurs the nightmare is Inter, Real and Auxerre

Dream draw for the top 3 is Panathinaikos/Shaktar, Basel and Zilina

ctrl-alt-delete

Yeah everyone in Pot 1 will want to avoid Real Madrid, they really are the team to avoid, and them being there will make at least one killer group!

I'm interested to see who Spartak Moscow get with Mr. McGeady there now, it is a pity they are in the same group as Rangers! We still might see him playing against an English club.

_Bella_

Nightmare Draw- Arsenal, Real Madrid, Schalke 04, Auxerre

Dream Draw: Arsenal, Panathinaikos , FC Copenhagen, Bursaspor

eagle eye

I'd rather get Auxerre to Rubin Kazan. They were incredibly tough last year beating Barca at the Nou Camp and unbeaten at home, drawing with both Barca and Inter.

Hard to know about Twente this season but if they can continue to improve now that McLaren is gone then they could be very dangerous too.

2nd Row Donkey

As a spurs fan i'm feeling a bit light headed as I take part in a CL thread for the first time!

gimmick

Liam O wrote: »

Pot 4 is Incredibly weak this season...

Disagree. Rubin Kazan, Twente, Partizan and Auxerre will all cause problems.

I would love to see Barca in a group with Ajax, Spurs and Cluj.

I hope Real end up with an English side as well - preferably Chelsea or Man U. Some battles those would be.

Mr. Guappa

Liam O wrote: »

worst draw for Arsenal/Chelsea/United is Real, Schalke/Ajax and Auxerre. Pot 4 is Incredibly weak this season...

For Spurs the nightmare is Inter, Real and Auxerre

Dream draw for the top 3 is Panathinaikos/Shaktar, Basel and Zilina

Its all the stuff of dreams for us tbh. I'd actually be disappointed if we got a group of Lyon, Panathanaikos, Buraspor.

adamski8

Liam O wrote: »

Pot 4 is Incredibly weak this season...

the perceived weakness was there last year as well. they changed it so more clubs from smaller footballing nations got in. For the better i say

unknown13

It amazes me every draw to see how high Rangers get seeded they belong in pot 4 based on previous CL performances.

PHB

I want Madrid. I want to play them and beat them Beyond that, I don't want htem in the knockouts so I'd rather get them in my group.

My ideal draw would be

Madrid
Rangers
AJ Auxerre

Minimise on travel so that it affects the PL performance, but with one decent team to play against

Mr. Presentable

PHB wrote: »

I want Madrid. I want to play them and beat them Beyond that, I don't want htem in the knockouts so I'd rather get them in my group.

My ideal draw would be

Madrid
Rangers
AJ Auxerre

Minimise on travel so that it affects the PL performance, but with one decent team to play against

Well thought out!

Liam O

adamski8 wrote: »

the perceived weakness was there last year as well. they changed it so more clubs from smaller footballing nations got in. For the better i say

gimmick wrote: »

Disagree. Rubin Kazan, Twente, Partizan and Auxerre will all cause problems.

I would love to see Barca in a group with Ajax, Spurs and Cluj.

I hope Real end up with an English side as well - preferably Chelsea or Man U. Some battles those would be.

In the past couple of years there's been at least 2 teams of good quality in there, now I don't see one. Rubin are decent and it's to their advantage that most teams have to travel so far to play them. Partizan lack any quality imo and Auxerre are CL novices and I don't expect them to trouble any top teams. Twente are interesting but they have lost their manager and afaik a few of their big players.

Ultimately I would fancy maybe 1 or 2 to get into the Europa and none to make the knockout stages and I think they will have the worst record of the 4th pots from recent years

Warper

There are only a couple of teams to avoid outside of the main Euro Leagues namely, Shaktar, Rubin Kazan, Benfica and maybe the Aiden McGeady inspired Spartak Moscow. The Dutch, Scandinavian, other teams shouldn't cause any problems really.

greendom

unknown13 wrote: »

It amazes me every draw to see how high Rangers get seeded they belong in pot 4 based on previous CL performances.

That's one thing in their favour surely - that they've been in the CL on numerous occasions

Frisbee

Dream Draw:

Arsenal
Shakhtar
Rangers
Partizan

Terrified of:

Arsenal
Real
Ajax
Auxerre

Warper

unknown13 wrote: »

It amazes me every draw to see how high Rangers get seeded they belong in pot 4 based on previous CL performances.

Whats worse is Panathinaikos in Pot 2.

RasTa

Who moved up to take Madrid's spot?

Frisbee

RasTa wrote: »

Who moved up to take Madrid's spot?

Inter were second pot last year weren't they?

Johner

Real Madrid were in pot 2 last year as well.

Johner

Lyon and Inter have moved up into pot 1. Liverpool and Sevilla were in it last year but obviously didn't qualify this year.

unknown13

Teams I would like to see Spurs get:

Pot 1: Lyon or Bayern Munich
Pot 2: Panathinaikos, Valencia or Marseille
Pot 4: Buraspor or Hapoel Tel Aviv

DubDani

unknown13 wrote: »

Teams I would like to see Spurs get:

Pot 1: Lyon or Bayern Munich
Pot 2: Panathinaikos, Valencia or Marseille
Pot 4: Buraspor or Hapoel Tel Aviv

Wouldn't you rather have Milan from pot 1? They are an attractive name, but certainly (at least IMO) the weakest team in pot 1.

chopperbyrne

This draw should be starting about now yeah?

adamski8

chopperbyrne wrote: »

This draw should be starting about now yeah?

no its 17:00 but theyll drag it out longer than that!

UnitedIrishman

Wouldn't mind playing Real in the group stage. Used to love the days of playing Juventus regularly in the group stage when they were the best side in Europe.

Would hate a draw in a group with a couple of the Ukranian/Russian sides purely for the travelling.

Skud

uefa.com have the draw live video and audio as well as updated on their site

linky: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/draws/index.html

Ush1

Wouldn't want Auxerre, tough little feckers they are.

MUSEIST

Ush1 wrote: »

Wouldn't want Auxerre, tough little feckers they are.

Why does eveyone want to avoid auxerre. Whats the story with them, to be fair I have not seen them play so i dont know much about them.

Smegball

United - Madrid would be absolutely epic encounters.

We will probably get Roma AGAIN :pac:

Mr.Nice Guy

I reckon Real will get an English side.

_Bella_

I have a feeling Real will get Chelsea or Inter... but maybe thats just what I want to see

s_carnage

And the waffle commences.....

Goalie of the year at the moment. Has to be Cesar

MUSEIST

Why do they go through all this sh!t, just do the dam draw ffs

Iago

AJAX & Zilina for United please

Aidric

Julio Cesar is falling asleep.

parker kent

Melanie is pretty awesome. I would definitely bring her for a bag of chips

Interesting to see who gets the Real Madrid booby prize.

redout

Madrid have a 43% chance of facing one of the 3 english sides from the top seeds.

Pepe LeFrits

Frisbee wrote: »

Dream Draw:

Arsenal
Shakhtar
Rangers
Partizan

Terrified of:

Arsenal
Real
Ajax
Auxerre

I'd be terrified of Arsenal vs Arsenal too; death by a thousand passes.

Anyway Arsenal have a particularly bad fixture list with regards to CL/PL away games so hopefully the draw is kind.

cson

You're all under rating Buraspor in this thread; they won a Turkish League that had Gala/Fener/Besiktas in it last year.

And Auxerre are being over rated imo. I saw a bit of them last year and they were very inconsistent. Flaky out.

My choice being an Arsenal fan would be;

Arsenal
Pana
Rangers
Auxerre

We'd easily have qualified by the the 4th round of games.

Mr. Guappa

Haha.. 3e show all the boring bits, then go to ads when they start the actual draw!

flyswatter

3e taking a break during draw? WTF?

Degag

OMG!!!

Chelsea got Group F!

Pepe LeFrits

OH DEAR GOD!

This is painful.

Bukman13

Spurs will be in group A (Inter) B (Lyon) or D (Barca). I think.

unknown13

Please be Lyon

limpdd

Who's the woman presenting? She's cool ;-)

Bukman13

unknown13 wrote: »

Please be Lyon

I dont think Real can be in group A B C D as barca are in that side.

unknown13

Bukman13 wrote: »

I dont think Real can be in group A B C D as barca are in that side.

Raskolnikov

I would certainly not want Bursaspor, they were a very difficult team to be in the Turkish league last year.