Great things happened the last two occasions Wembley hosted the Champions League final... Tito Vilanova's quest to join Johan Cryuff and Pep Guardiola as Wembley coaching heroes begins on Thursday 30 August with the draw for the group stage. Following the results from Tuesday's playoff matches, here are how the four pots currently look. Clubs in red still have to complete their playoff ties on Wednesday. POT A Chelsea FC Barcelona Manchester United Bayern München Real Madrid Arsenal FC Porto AC Milan POT B Valencia Benfica Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St. Petersburg Schalke 04 Manchester City Sporting Braga Dinamo Kiev Olympiakos Piraeus (Pot B or C) POT C AFC Ajax FC Basel Anderlecht Juventus FC København Spartak Moscow Paris Saint-Germain Fenerbahçe Lille OSC Galatasaray (Pot C or D) Celtic (Pot C or D) Borussia Dortmund (Pot C or D) POT D BATE Borisov Dinamo Zagreb CFR Cluj Málaga CF Borussia Mönchengladbach Helsingborg IF Montpellier FC Nordsjælland
Avoid crazy travel especially to really cold places; prefer to avoid the 4 teams that seem to hit above their weight limit (or have potential too I realize PSG is not scaring anyone right at the moment): City in B, Juventus, PSG, and Dortmund in C (or even D for Dortmund). Love to play some clubs we have not faced recently in the general vicinity (portugal, italy, france, germany, etc.)
I don't want to make any predictions for an easy group us, because no team should be underestimated at this stage (see Kazan, Rubin). But I agree, hopefully we avoid anyplace too cold or far away. As for teams I'd rather not face, well if Borussia went to pot D, I'd just love to see this group: LPB Man City Juventus Borussia Dortmund
Hopefully we'll get a relatively simple group (not to be confused with easy) with little travel and nowhere really cold in the return leg.
One match still going on from Wednesday's games, but the results of the other games are complete and the four pots are now known. EDITED: Lille advance after extra time. POT A Chelsea FC Barcelona Manchester United Bayern München Real Madrid Arsenal FC Porto AC Milan POT B Valencia Benfica Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St. Petersburg Schalke 04 Manchester City Sporting Braga Dinamo Kiev POT C Olympiakos Piraeus AFC Ajax Anderlecht Juventus Lille OSC Spartak Moscow Paris Saint-Germain Galatasaray POT D Celtic Borussia Dortmund BATE Borisov Dinamo Zagreb CFR Cluj Málaga CF Montpellier FC Nordsjælland
Provisions of the draw... very important to keep in mind as the draw is being conducted: Where two sides from the same association have qualified, they will be paired to split their matches between Tuesday and Wednesday, so one club will always play at home on one day and the other will play away on the other day. In the case of associations with three representatives, only two teams have been paired in terms of their fixtures; in the case of associations with four representatives, two pairings have been made based on the TV audience. To ensure sides from the same country play on separate days, the eight groups will be distinguished by colour: Groups A-D will be red and Groups E-H blue. When a paired club is drawn, for example, into one of the red groups, the other paired club – once it has been drawn – will automatically be assigned to one of the four blue groups.
I'm trying to construct a group in which Malaga would have a good chance to survive in. It's not easy. This is the best I came up with: Milan Braga Galatasaray Malaga ? And it still wouldn't be easy by any means. Actually that would be a pretty even/interesting group. Especially for away supporters to travel to.
POT A GROUP A FC Porto GROUP B Arsenal GROUP C AC Milan GROUP D Real Madrid GROUP E Chelsea GROUP F Bayern Munich GROUP G FC Barcelona GROUP H Manchester United
Anyone watching the stream? Host: "Real Madrid... you know Real Madrid, Steve?" McMannaman: "... pfft."
POT B GROUP A FC Porto Dinamo Kiev GROUP B Arsenal Schalke 04 GROUP C AC Milan Zenit St. Petersburg GROUP D Real Madrid Manchester City GROUP E Chelsea Shakhtar Donetsk GROUP F Bayern Munich Valencia GROUP G FC Barcelona Benfica GROUP H Manchester United Sporting Braga
See the provisions I listed. EDIT: Basically, there are two English sides in the blue half of the draw. So the other two must go into the red half.