Champions League/Europa League 09/10

thought i would start this as i the champ leagues have been sorted

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa.
Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg.
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich.
Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL Nicosia.
Group E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debreceni.
Group F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan.
Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni.
Group H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege


now at a glance, as many other fellow man utd fans have been saying, we have a great easy group.
but i disagree here, cska and wolfsburg espescially will be very tough games.

what are others views on these groups?
who will qualify?

imo
Bayern, Juve, Man Utd, Wolfsburg, AC, Real, Chelsea, Porto, Liverpool, Lyon, Barce, Inter, Sevilla, Stuttgart, Arsenal and AZ will qualify

all eyes will be only on Milan vs Madrid and Barca vs Inter.

but the united group is interesting, moscow are a good team, so are woflsburg. besiktas might not be on par with the rest but will still wont be easy.

at home united are quite so superior, but away vs the likes of wolfsburg who are in the CL now with all the motivation and will and playing against the finalists.

so its never gonna be easy for united.

i think arsenal got the easier group because at home if they play good they can easily beat those teams. away from home it will be very very very difficult for arsenal though, doubt they will win away from home in the group stages.

still a few good fights like sevilla, rangers and stuttgart. so should be a decent CL. not getting my expectations up as of yet though.

I think that Man Utd have a good group but I don't think we should underestimate Besiktas. Besiktas playing a home are very good as almost all Turkish teams at home. Their fans are "hardcore" and I have heard of things like all kinds of objects being thrown at the players... Wolfsburg and CSKA are good but should be able to be put aside....

How nice is it that Real face AC Milan with Kaka and Barca face Inter with Ibrahimovic!

@Reddevil - You really think AZ have a chance at progressing? (Just interested of what other people think of AZ)

they have a talented squad, and underestimated.
more chance then olympiakos and standard imo.

AZ have a good chance of going through. but the other two especialy olyp, are not to be taken lightly. United will find Wolfsburg physical and a stern test but I can see that turning into getting scrape wins Cska Moskow can bring something to united but if united are on form it will be a no contest. Besiktas could go either way it depends how the first 10 mins go, as in previous matches against against turksih oposition. Again there will be classics in the group stages, which have been allready siad and I can't wait.

AZ are quite so good, the dutch league might have lost a bit of touch in the last decade. but they are still a very good team from a good league.

and playing away in CL is always tough no matter what the opposition really.

at home im quite sure united will beat the teams with quite an ease. but away they will have a real tough time at moscow and besiktas.

but fergie has improved his squad to go to aways and get a result.

the most difficult away game for united will be vs wolfsburg, that team is really good, at home they will be well up for it and they have quality and will give united a tough time.

cska moscow and besiktas will be tough as well, but quality wise they are not that close to united. especially not besiktas. but away is always tough though.

i think the italian teams will do very well vs the spanish teams. they will be extra motivated as well. so it will be a good matches to watch i hope.

Rangers fan here was always going to be a difficult draw for us no matter who we got the Romanians must be decent if they won ther league and could be very tricky especially at there own ground Stuggart are a good side as last years uefa cup run showed and Sevilla are surley the group favs Spanish sides will always play good football and i dont like our chances over there i think each team can take points off each other tho so if we could get 7 at home and maybe 1-2 points away we should have a good chance although i would be happy enough with 3rd place if we could get a wee uefa cup run English teams should all qualify Arsenal couldnt have picked an easier group Man utd Chelsea and Liverpools groups all look pretty straight forward
although they will all have some tricky games.

urziceni is a team with mostly reinvented players, over 25, past their prime most of them, who dan petrescu(manager) did a very good job of relaunching them in football.nobody wanted to buy them, petrescu did, and he rounded up a good team. stuttgart played in the 3rd round against timisoara, steaua played against sevilla 4 times in the last 3 years and dan petrscu played for chelsea for 5-6 years bradford southampton so he knows a thing or two about UK football.on the other hand urziceni is a first timer in the UCL, lack of international experience from the players and as a single unit, every player from the squad of urziceni is below any other player from the other 3 teams but the team is strong as a unit, nobody stand out.BEWARE.....first time for steaua in the UCL(after many years) won 4-1 away against dinamo kyev, first time for cfr cluj in the UCL they won 2-1 away at as roma.maybe in the first game fc sevilla-unirea urziceni 0-1 or 0-2 or 1-2

euro league
group a

ajax
anderlecht
dinamo zagreb
timisoara

timisoara.....what can i say about them....they wanted to go to the UCL groups but lost against stuttgart so they are here.the draw could have been better but also it could have been worst for them.both dinamo z and anderlecht should be verry worried especially when they will play in romania.timisoara has a 40000 spectator stadium and most likely it will be at least 50000, the public is their strong point/just like english fans, they never give up.i remeber 4-5 years ago steaua beat 8-1 away and the fans wore still singing and cheering for the team.also very good wingers and a small but very fast striker(owen style) tough DMs and CDs and they have the first option of the romanian u21 team in goal.ajax will probably win both matches but dinamo and anderlecht will have to fight for it, and its not easy having 40000+ people against you.


group f

galatasaray
panatinaikos
dinamo buch
sturm graz

very even group, i have no ideea who will win it, every team has a 25% chance for the 1st place.dinamo came after a 0-3 defeat at home against slovan liberec(it was 0-2 but the reff stopped the game before the 90th min and dinamo lost 3-0) and managed to score 3 without conceding any away and eventually won on pens(8-7 or 9-8 something like that).they have a grat morale despite numerous fan/chairma(s)-yes they have more than one/alcohool scandals/poor manager and so on...qualifying after a defeat 0-3 at home is a first for any romanian club, and one of the few at european level.the attack is the strong poit for dinamo having marius niculae(37caps/13goals and a regular in the national side), claudiu niculescu(the BEST freekick taker in romania...it has 18-19 at freekicks in FM) ionel danciulescu(4th top goalscorer in the first division and the only one still playing-over 100 goals), florin bratu(very fast and very technical player) also they have 2 very good AMC. the defence is the wakest......everyone is crap imo.

group h

STEAUA
fenerbahce
twente
sheriff tiraspol

because steaua was 1st seed they got the easyest group.twente and sheriff should pose no trouble to steaua, maybe twente in holland might get a draw, but the battle for 1st place is between steaua and fener.steaua qualified after 3 legs winning everything 6 games 6 wins(st patt's athletic, motherwell, ujpest).after may years of struggling and winning games with just 1-0 after a set piece, the new manager turned things around, more speedy game, rotation of players, young and talented players who want to play at their best.the strikers are very good, bogdan stancu is a young and talented player, good speed, good skils on the ball and an eye for goal, pantelis kapetanos is a tall players who usually scores in the end of the game("midnight killer"-hehe), andrei ionescu is a very good AMC with great vision and techinque; he is the classic playmaker, romeo surdu another fast and technical player.at the moment the defence is not the best part of the team because of the selling of probably the best defender steaua had for the last 6-7 years.in goalwe have an experienced gk from columbia and the second choice for the u21 national team.


group k

PSV
fc kopenhagen
sparta praga
cfr cluj

in this group cfr has a real chance of getting the second place.imo both kopenhagen and sparta are below cfr.the romanians have experience in the UCL last season getting 5 points in the group stage( winning away at roma with 2-1)except for psv i dont think that cfr will have any problems in the groups.they have a team filled with argentinians, portuguese, brasilian players so every think you know about romanian teams and our style of play is absolute rubish in the case of cfr. very technical team, starting from the CD and finishing with the AMC.the striker yousuff kone is a tall and powerfull forward, one of the best in the league who can easely score goals against any team in the world.he also has UCL experience from the time spent at rosenborg.




too bad for fc vaslui.we could have had 5 teams in the groups but AEK athens beat them(laugh all you want stam...=D )

When are the first fixtures in both the champions league and the europa league going to take place?

Rangers fan just back from Ibrox via several pubs never ever a 1-4 game we were shit tonight no doubt Sevilla are a guid side number 1 seeds after all going in at half time 0-0 i thought we had them on the ropes def pen turned away not sour grapes just watch it but 1st goal NEVER a free kick defending was awful after that goal went in we lost 3 more in 15 mins heads went down schoolboy defending terrible performance. Highlight of night was teaching Seville fans we met in pub to sing 2 songs Oh the Celtic are shite and winning the league your having a laugh in perfect drunk Scottish chant guid lads guid laugh pity i aint laughing tonight bring on the Romanians

ohh yes, loving how liverpool got bet, come on jovetic haha

It makes it ever so sweeter in Benetez's pre-match press confrence he said 'we can beat anyone in europe',

i really enjoyed fiorentina's win