Pot A: Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Porto, Internazionale, Arsenal Pot B: Shakhtar Donetsk, Villarreal, Valencia, CSKA Moscow, Marseille, Milan, Lyon, Benfica Pot C: Olympiacos, BATE Borisov, Manchester City, Lille, Zenit St Petersburg, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Basel Pot D: Borussia Dortmund, Trabzonspor, Genk, Napoli, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL, Otelul Galati, Viktoria Plizen
some of these groups are crazy competitive. Group A: Bayern Villarreal Man city Napoli group d: Real madrid Lyon Ajax Dinamo Zagreb group E: Chelsea Valencia Leverkusen Genk those are my top 3 so far
Group A Bayern Munich Villareal Man. City Napoli Group B Inter CSKA Moscow Lille Trabzonspor Group C Man United Benfica Basel Otelul Galati Group D Real Madrid Oly. Lyon Ajax Dinamo Zagreb Group E Chelsea Valencia Bayer Leverkusen Genk Group F Arsenal Oly. Marseille Olympiacos Borussia Dortmund Group G Porto Shaktar Donetsk Zenit St. Petersburg Apoel Nicosia Group H Barcelona AC Milan BATE Borisov Viktoria Plzen Yes, A, D, and E look very though.
FFS how many times are Real and Lyon going to play each other. Tell me its not fixed. The expression on the Lyon guy in the audience saying "Oh putain" says it all... Barca vs Milan.... nice. Fixed. They went straight into the group. EUFA trying to ******** the Italian teams again with their stupid coefficient, the Russians must be outbidding them hard. SSC Napoli to be picked and sent to group of death. FIXED. United and Inter getting a free pass.
Groups "D" and "E" are crazy competitive? Looks like a breeze for Madrid and Chelsea. I would say Group "F" is competitive.
ajax and lyon know real madrid because they some how always play each other. it took RM a few seasons to finally beat lyon and ajax are better then they were last year thanks to johan cruyff coming pack. for chelsea, valencia and bayern can cause problems group F you still expect Barca and milan to get through
Unlikely, since they aren't even in group F I also find group F pretty competetive - a relatively weak pot 1 team (Arsenal) and possibly the strongest pot 4 (Dortmund), plus good teams from the other 2 pots. Any constellation is possible here. But group A is pretty much the closest thing to a real group of death that is imaginable with seeding.
Agree. Group A is most competitive because all are relatively strong. Group F is competitive because Arsenal and Marseille are so erratic.
Well except for the fact that they have the fifth best record in the CL over the last four seasons. Note to Italian posters: not everything is as rigged as Italian football.
No matter how the draw comes out someone is bound to say it's rigged. Think about what you believe would've been the 'perfect draw', then think about the odds of that perfect draw becoming reality. If it were to happen, only then could we say it was fixed. If people know the provisions of how the draw is conducted they can easily follow along as it's being made and understand why, for example, Man City went directly into Group A when they were plucked out of the bowl.
How is it more money that way? I don't see the financial advantage of always pairing Madrid with Lyon.
Okay, you have the floor. List what you feel would have looked like a draw that wasn't fixed. Keep in mind two provisions as you list your perfect groups: • No teams from the same country can be in the same group (this part is easy) • Each matchday sees Groups A through D play on one day (for example, Tuesday) while groups E through H play the other day (Wednesday). Thus, leagues that have two or more clubs involved have paired up two teams to avoid them playing on the same day so as to maximize domestic television coverage: If one goes into Group A-D then the other must go into Group E-H. So you'll need to make sure these pairings are kept separate (one in Groups A-D, the other in Groups E-H) as you make your list... England: Manchester United and Chelsea England: Arsenal and Manchester City Spain : Barcelona and Real Madrid Spain: Villarreal and Valencia Italy: Inter Milan and AC Milan Germany: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dorrtmund Portugal: Porto and Benfica France: Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille Russia: Zenit St. Petersburg and CSKA Moscow Now show everyone how you would have fixed the groups... oops, wrong choice of words there. Show everyone how you would have been pleased with the draw.
WTF are you talking about. Who cares how I would be pleased to have the draw? My opinion is based on how conveniently some teams have been paired by this "draw".
The point is, that its almost impossible to have the draw go in such a way that there aren't some intriguing/money-making matchups. If Milan didn't get Barca, they would've got Real Madrid again (ZOMG, can you imagine?? Dude!!) Or Man United. Then you and your conspiracy theorists would be saying "ZOMFG! Man Utd - Milan. Rematch of 2007 semifinal! Teh draw is so totally FIXED!!!11!!" This is a perfect illustration why people make fun of conspiracy theorists. BTW, do we have any 'flat-Earthers' here with us today?
And so I'm asking you to show everyone how the draw should have resulted without someone pointing to a particular pairing and saying "a-ha!". Prove that the draw can result without any "convenient pairings". It's impossible.