My Naija News - Clubs Know Foes in Champions League Group Stage

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Clubs Know Foes in Champions League Group Stage

Written by Adeleke Afolayan

Thursday, 28 August 2008

The draws for the group stage of Europe's elite club competition, the UEFA Champions League has been held with defending champions Manchester United in Group E alongside Scots Celtic, 2006 semi-finalists Villarreal and Danish side Aalborg.

Losing finalists in last season's competition, Chelsea find themselves in Group A with Italians AS Roma, French side Bordeaux and Romanian debutantes CFR Cluj which has had a fairy tale rise in football, from six years ago in the third tier of the Romanian league to becoming the first club outside Bucharest to win the league last season and reach the Champions League group stage.

Group B sees Cyprus have a first ever representative in the Champions League in Anorthosis Famagusta which defeated neighbouring Greek side Olympiacos 3-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round.

The most interesting groups on paper however are Groups D, F and H with Group D having five time winners Liverpool pitched with PSV, Taye Taiwo's Marseille and enterprising Spaniards Atletico.

Group F sees seven time French champions Lyon face 2001 European champions Bayern Munich, Fiorentina that reached the UEFA Cup semi-final last season and difficult Romanians Steaua Bucharest

Group H has record nine time winners of the competition Real Madrid face 1996 champions Juventus back from a hiatus brought by the match-fixing scandal of 2006, UEFA Cup champions Zenit St. Petersburg and Belarusian outfit FC Bate Borisov.

The full draw as it panned out follows below with matches set to kick off from the 16th of Septamber;

Group A

Chelsea FC (England)
AS Roma    (Itl)
Girondins Bordeaux (France)
CFR Cluj (Romania)

Group B

Internazionale (Italy)
Werder Bremen (Germany)
Panathinaikos (Greece)
Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)

Group C

CF Barcelona (Spain)
Sporting Lisbon    (Portugal)
FC Basel (Switzerland)
Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)

Group D

Liverpool (Eng)
PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
Olympique Marseille (Fra)
Atletico Madrid (Esp)

Group E

Manchester United (Eng)
Villarreal (Esp)
Celtic (Scotland)
Aalborg    (Denmark)

Group F

Olympique Lyon (Fra)
Bayern Munich (Ger)
Steaua Bucharest (Rom)
ACF Fiorentina (Itl)

Group G

Arsenal FC (Eng)
FC Porto (Por)
Fenerbahce SK (Turkey)
Dynamo Kiev (Ukr)

Group H

Real Madrid (Esp)
Juventus (Itl)
Zenit St Petersburg (Russia)
Bate Borisov (Belarus)

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