StarLord
New member
Less than a month after our glorious triumph in Berlin and the capture of our 5th European Cup, the UEFA Champions League returns tonight!
Will this finally be the season when a side manages to retain the Holy Grail of club football? Will it be Lucho's boys who finally break the long-standing curse? Let's certainly hope so. For my part, I think we can do it, the presence of MSN (let alone the rest of our squad) guarantees that we are always in with a very good chance, no matter the level of the opposition.
This season, may also be the first time in Champions League history when a national league, in this case La Liga, manages to send 5 different clubs in the Group Stage. That will only happen if Valencia make it past the play-off round, which will probably not be very easy at all.
We also have a new seeding system for the Group Stage draw. The eight (8) different national champions of the Top 8 divisions in Europe will be seeded in the first pot, while high-ranked clubs such as Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal will be relegated to Pot 2. That means that we are likely to face a very tough group this coming season. Ironically, the new seeding method, will benefit the high-ranked non-Champions as they will all avoid each other, and at the same time will have very good chances of drawing the champions of Portugal/Netherlands/Russia.
Pot 1:
Barcelona
Chelsea
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Benfica
PSG
Zenit
PSV
Pot 2:
Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid
Porto
Arsenal
Manchester City
Pot 2/3:
Sevilla
Lyon
Dynamo Kiev
Pot 3:
Olympiacos
Galatasaray
Pot 3/4:
AS Roma
Borussia M'gladbach
Wolfsburg
Pot 4:
Gent
Manchester United, Valencia and Leverkusen will enter the play-off round seeded as "strong". Sporting and Lazio will have to wait to see where they will be seeded in the play-off round. Shaktar, Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Club Brugge, Monaco, Young Boys, Sparta Prague, Fenerbache, Panathinaikos and Rapid Wien all join in the 3rd qualifying round. The first five of those clubs will be seeded.
As for tonight's games, all minnow encounters of course:
Lincoln Red Imps (GIB) vs FC Santa Coloma (AND)
Crusaders (NIR) vs Levadia Talinn (EST)
Pyunik (ARM) vs Folgore (SMA)
Tomorrow:
B36 Torshavn (FOI) vs The New Saints (WAL)
Will this finally be the season when a side manages to retain the Holy Grail of club football? Will it be Lucho's boys who finally break the long-standing curse? Let's certainly hope so. For my part, I think we can do it, the presence of MSN (let alone the rest of our squad) guarantees that we are always in with a very good chance, no matter the level of the opposition.
This season, may also be the first time in Champions League history when a national league, in this case La Liga, manages to send 5 different clubs in the Group Stage. That will only happen if Valencia make it past the play-off round, which will probably not be very easy at all.
We also have a new seeding system for the Group Stage draw. The eight (8) different national champions of the Top 8 divisions in Europe will be seeded in the first pot, while high-ranked clubs such as Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal will be relegated to Pot 2. That means that we are likely to face a very tough group this coming season. Ironically, the new seeding method, will benefit the high-ranked non-Champions as they will all avoid each other, and at the same time will have very good chances of drawing the champions of Portugal/Netherlands/Russia.
Pot 1:
Barcelona
Chelsea
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Benfica
PSG
Zenit
PSV
Pot 2:
Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid
Porto
Arsenal
Manchester City
Pot 2/3:
Sevilla
Lyon
Dynamo Kiev
Pot 3:
Olympiacos
Galatasaray
Pot 3/4:
AS Roma
Borussia M'gladbach
Wolfsburg
Pot 4:
Gent
Manchester United, Valencia and Leverkusen will enter the play-off round seeded as "strong". Sporting and Lazio will have to wait to see where they will be seeded in the play-off round. Shaktar, Ajax, CSKA Moscow, Club Brugge, Monaco, Young Boys, Sparta Prague, Fenerbache, Panathinaikos and Rapid Wien all join in the 3rd qualifying round. The first five of those clubs will be seeded.
As for tonight's games, all minnow encounters of course:
Lincoln Red Imps (GIB) vs FC Santa Coloma (AND)
Crusaders (NIR) vs Levadia Talinn (EST)
Pyunik (ARM) vs Folgore (SMA)
Tomorrow:
B36 Torshavn (FOI) vs The New Saints (WAL)
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