The Draw for the Group Stages of the 2014-15 edition of the UEFA Champions League took place in Monaco today with English champions Manchester City finding themselves on the short end of the stick once again this year. Manchester City were drawn in Group E alongside Bayern Munich, Russian champions CSKA Moscor and arguably the best team in Pot 4 of the draw - AS Roma.
The other English teams had mixed
results with Liverpool finding themselves in Group B alongside defending
champions Real Madrid, but will fancy their chances of getting through the
group considering the other two teams are Swiss champions Basel and Bulgarian
flavour of the day Ludogorets Razgrad.
Arsenal once again find
themselves in a challenging group, but one that is perhaps a little easier than
last season with Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and Anderlecht as opposition.
With Dortmund and Galatasaray both a star striker short as compared to last
season, the Gunners should be favourites to scrape through, but the Group as a
whole promises to be exciting.
Chelsea continue to find
themselves rather blessed by the footballing gods as they find themselves
alongside Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor in what is perhaps one of the
easiest groups in the competition and the Blues can probably breeze into the
group stages even if they opt to field a second string team right through the
early stages of the Champions League, thereby keeping their top players fresh
for an assault on the Premier League crown.
The Draw:
Group A: Atletico Madrid,
Juventus, Olympiakos, Malmo
Group B: Real Madrid, Basel,
Liverpool, Ludogorets Razgrad
Group C: Benfica, Zenit St
Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco
Group D: Arsenal, Borussia
Dortmund, Galatasaray, Anderlecht
Group E: Bayern Munich,
Manchester City, CSKA Moscow, Roma
Group F: Barcelona, Paris
St-Germain, Ajax, APOEL Nicosia
Group G: Chelsea, Schalke,
Sporting Lisbon, Maribor
Group H: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk,
Athletic Bilbao, BATE Borisov
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