UCL Draw Thread

[robdog 2,084]

It's cancelled. was apparently a misunderstanding.

What's cancelled? The Sheep sacrifice? The fans couldn't do it anyway cause UEFA said so.

[Blue Armour 4,289]

The chances of us getting an easy group are very low though.

Just look at all those teams, there are many good teams per seed so I don't expect an easy group. The easy groups are for United and Arsenal.

Kojo, pessimistic as usual. But yeah after recent seasons, I'm also inclined to think the same.

[NishC300 1,865]

Erm, they already did...back in January.

Spurs are now signing Willian from Anzhi...

That looks like a weird Spurs kit...

[hjperdeath 2,226]

What's cancelled? The Sheep sacrifice? The fans couldn't do it anyway cause UEFA said so.

UEFA did, but the mind was made up already not to.

Viktor Kumykov, the Shakhter coach, had suggested the sacrifice would be repeated but a Celtic spokesman said: "Clearly this would not happen. Shakhter have spoken to the club and said this is a misunderstanding and made it clear they have no intention whatsoever of doing anything like this."

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I just cant imagine how a poor team like arsenal have qualified out of every group stage for more than 10 yrs now. Theve been luckily avoiding tough groups.

Except, Arsenal in European terms are hardly a poor team. Yes, they haven't won a trophy in a long time, but a top-4 finish every year in the best league the world means you are good team.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

If Chelsea draw Atletico who here thinks they will let Courtois play?

[Jase 43,479]

Tonight's final five play-off results:

Celtic 3-0 Shakhter Karagandy (Celtic win 3-2 on agg)

Real Sociedad 2-0 Lyon (Real Sociedad win 4-0 on agg)

Zenit St. Peterburg 4-2 Pacos Ferreira (Zenit win 8-3 on agg)

AC Milan 3-0 PSV Eindhoven (AC Milan win 4-1 on agg)

NK Maribor 0-1 Viktoria Plzen (Viktoria Plzen win 4-1 on agg)

We now know the confirmed and final pot allocations. See first post to find out.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Chelsea

Shakthar

Basel

Steaua

[Pizy 18,368]

Chelsea

Shakthar

Basel

Steaua

That looks like a friendly Manchester United group.

UEFA doesn't put weights inside of the balls for us like they do United.

[didierforever 7,349]

damn... pot 3 looks more dangerous than pot 2.

[didierforever 7,349]

Could we be in danger of dropping down to pot 2 if we have another poor CL campaign? lets be honest 11/12 aside we haven't done anything of any note in the CL since Hiddink was around.

no way. by uefa coefficient we are 4th in europe. also arsenal are still in pot 1 and i seriously cant remember the last time they made semis.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

It’s nearly that time of the season once again where the Champions League season will kick off in a month’s time. And that means the group stage draw is not far off as it will take place next Thursday on 29th August in Monaco at 4.45pm UK time. As you may also have noticed there, the draw is done one day before we face Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup.

(You might be wondering why another thread is created for this when a Chelsea-related European thread already exists but since that one is being used to discuss about the Super Cup game, created a separate one first and will later merge this with that thread once it’s over.)

Just like every other Champions League season’s group stage draw, 32 teams will participate in the competition and they will be allocated to 4 pots based on their latest UEFA Coefficients which can be seen here. A team will then be drawn out from each pot to form a group of 4 teams and in total having eight different groups with four various teams in them. And remember, teams from the same country cannot be drawn together in the group stage as well as in the round of Last 16 until the quarter finals come about.

Currently, we still do not know the full allocations of teams in each pot yet as the play-off ties are still ongoing and will only conclude next week. However, there are already 22 teams that will be guaranteed to feature in the group stage though not necessarily all of their pot placing have been decided yet as it will be determined by which teams win their play-off tie and their UEFA coefficients. Anyway, you can see the ‘rough’ allocations for the teams in the pot and the ongoing play-off tie results below:

Pot 1

1. Barcelona

2. Bayern Munich

3. Chelsea

4. Real Madrid

5. Manchester United

6. Arsenal

7. FC Porto

8. Benfica

Pot 2

1. Atletico Madrid

2. Shakhtar Donetsk

3. Schalke

4. Marseille

5. CSKA Moscow

6. Paris St. Germain

7. AC Milan

8. Juventus

Pot 3

1. Ajax

2. Borussia Dortmund

3. Basel

4. Olympiacos

5. Galatasaray

6. Manchester City

7. Zenit St. Petersburg

8. Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4

1. Napoli

2. Anderlecht

3. Steaua Bucharest

4. Austria Wien

5. FC Copenhagen

6. Celtic

7. Viktoria Plzen

8. Real Sociedad

Play-Off Tie Results:

First Leg (20th and 21st August)

Shakhter Karagandy 2-0 Celtic

Lyon 0-2 Real Sociedad

Pacos Ferreira 1-4 Zenit St. Petersburg

PSV Eindhoven 1-1 AC Milan

Viktoria Plzen 3-1 NK Maribor

Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 Austria Wien

Fenerbahce 0-3 Arsenal

Ludogorets Razgrad 2-4 Basel

Schalke 1-1 PAOK Thessaloniki

Steaua Bucharest 1-1 Legia Warsaw

Second Leg (27th and 28th August)

Celtic 3-0 Shakhter Karagandy (Celtic win 3-2 on agg)

Real Sociedad 2-0 Lyon (Real Sociedad win 4-0 on agg)

Zenit St. Peterburg 4-2 Pacos Ferreira (Zenit win 8-3 on agg)

AC Milan 3-0 PSV Eindhoven (AC Milan win 4-1 on agg)

NK Maribor 0-1 Viktoria Plzen (Viktoria Plzen win 4-1 on agg)

Austria Wien 2-3 Dinamo Zagreb (Ausria Wien win 4-3 on agg)

Arsenal 2-0 Fenerbahce (Arsenal win 5-0 on agg)

Basel 2-0 Ludogorets Razgrad (Basel win 6-2 on agg)

PAOK Thessaloniki 2-3 Schalke (Schalke win 4-3 on agg)

Legia Warsaw 2-2 Steaua Bucharest (Steaua Bucharest win on away goals rule after 3-3 on agg)

So, what are your thoughts on it? Who would you want us to face? Which team needs to be avoided? Discuss all of it here.

P.S. I will be updating this as it goes along.

I just want to avoid Dortmund and Juventus. Schalke would be a GREAT draw from pot two.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Guys, let's keep the Bayern discussion in the prematch thread.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I bet Barca and united get two of Schalke, Marseille and CSKA

When's the draw, btw? Is it this Friday?

[Jase 43,479]

How has Gotze been doing?

Just returned from injury. Started his first game for Bayern last weekend against Nurnberg.

[Jase 43,479]

I bet Barca and united get two of Schalke, Marseille and CSKA

When's the draw, btw? Is it this Friday?

I feel like whenever such questions are being asked. All my hardwork is being wasted in the first post..

The draw is tomorrow at 4.45pm UK time!

[Barbara 15,149]

I'm all for our group be all #3 in the pots reunited in a group with Schalke, Basel and Steua.

Well, I think we have good chances to have a good group although statistics and probability prove we could have a deadly group again.

But pot by pot I think in #2 we only have to avoid PSG and Juve (that's 75% working for us and I don't mind playing Atlético)

Pot #3 we have to avoid Dortmund and City - another 75% possibility of that happening (how laughable is that City is in pot 3 and so close to pot 4?)

Depending on the combination of what we get from the two first pots, having Napoli from the #4 isn't even that bad, so I don't think there's anyone we should avoid in pot #4.

The teams to really avoid are only those 4 I mentioned - and I only included City because it seems like lately we can't even score against them, let alone beat (and that even includes friendlies. ugh! annoying)

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I feel like whenever such questions are being asked. All my hardwork is being wasted in the first post..

The draw is tomorrow at 4.45pm UK time!

Your first post is too long, I just skimmed it