With all 32 teams now qualified the top dogs of European football all sat down in Monaco to watch their teams being drawn together in the Champions League. Aside the draw they dish out the European Player of the Year Awards which are supposedly chosen by the managers whose teams made it to the knockout rounds of last year's Champions League. Now I'm not suggesting that the awards are fixed but they usually don't always add up, this year all five awards went to Inter Milan players, which I think is just because they won last year's Champions League. Julio Cesar picked up the goalkeeper of the year, Maicon the defender of the year, Sneijder the midfielder of the year and Diego Milito won striker and overall player of year, somehow. Anyway here's how the Champions League Draw finished as, where two teams will be playing out the final in May at Wembley:
Group A: After beating Young Boys yesterday, Tottenham were awarded a pretty tough group which they may find hard to get out of and may end up having to compete in the Europa League after all. They will meet the defending champions Inter Milan along with Werder Bremen of Germany and Steve McLaren's old club FC Twente of Holland. This group is possibly the secondary group of death as any of the four could potentially progress.
Group B: French side Lyon will meet Portuguese powerhouse Benfica as both sides will look progress at Shalke of Germany's and Hapoel Tel-Aviv of Israel's expense. The latter two will battle out third place to enter the Europa League.
Group C: The second of the English sides to be drawn was Manchester United, they will face Valencia who are now without David Villa and David Silva which means they should be less of a threat. These two have met a few times before and United seem to attract the Scottish entrants as well as they have both Celtic and Rangers on numerous occasions, this year it's Rangers' turn to visit Old Trafford. The final team in this group is Turkish side Bursaspor, who are entering the Champions League for the first time and provide an unknown opposition to the table.
Group D: Barcelona have been dealt a good group against Greek side Panathinaikos, Danish side FC Copenhagen and Russian outfit Rubin Kazan. Should be any one of three to follow Barcelona, my money would be on Copenhagen who scraped through on away goals last night thanks to ex-Chelsea star Jesper Gronkjaer.
Group E: Last year's runner-up Bayern Munich will face Italians Roma who will look to head into the knockout rounds with Swiss side FC Basel and Romanian side CFR Cluj battling it out for the Europa League spot.
Group F: Chelsea have a decent group with only Olympique Marseille providing the major danger however a trip to Spartak Moscow isn't always easy. They will also be facing Slovakian debutants MSK Zilina.
Group G: This is most definitely the group of death; AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax and Auxerre, need I say more! Unfortunately Ajax aren't the side they were but it still will be the hardest group to get out of for sure.
Group H: The final group sees Arsenal face a fairly simplistic group; they will meet Ukranian's Shakhtar Donetsk along with Portuguese SC Braga and Serbian debutants FK Partizan. It is a great opportunity for Donetsk or Braga to make it into the knockout rounds unless Partizan cause a massive upset.
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