The Draw is later today and i've just seen the seedings at UEFA web page. http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=576667.html Personally I'd prefer to avoid Valencia in the group stage.
yes, we got benfica, which if i had to choose from pot 2 is the easiest of those teams. also, maldini won best defender and seedorf won best midfielder, and we have had 6 guys nominated, dida, nesta, pirlo, gattuso in addition to the two mentioned guys, and we know kaka will win best attacker. this is going great
ahh, celtic, that is a tough one from pot 3, donati and nakamura. frasermc, what do you think? I think celtic is maybe the second best team in the group and wouldn't be surprised if they advanced at all edit: kaka wins for best forward, no surprise there
The Groups are Group A:Liverpool, Porto, Marseille and Besiktas Group B:Chelsea, Valencia, Schalke and Rosenborg Group C:Real Madrid, Werder Bremen, Lazio and Olimpiakos Group D:AC Milan, Benfica, Celtic and Shaktar Group E:Barca, Lyon, Stuttgart and Rangers Group F:Man Utd., Roma, Sporting and Kiev Group G:Inter, PSV, CSKA and Slavia Prague Group H:Arsenal, Sevilla/AEK, Steau and Fenerbache Paolo Maldini voted club defender of the year, Seedorf midfielder of the year and Kaka attacker of the year. Not too bad Don't like the look of the Man Utd./Roma tie
ugghhh, we got shaktar for our pot 4 team. so, our group is D milan benfica celtic shaktar another thing of interest is man utd and roma are in a group together
it's always exciting to watch the draw for the champions league group stages but i was a little deflated to be honest because i'd wanted to face a new challenge. milan will obviously go through. massimo will be loving the draw. i'll need to see if we'll journey to the san siro again for the away game. i loved it there last season. any team in the first pot was always going to be an attractive tie but to have benfica again and shakthar was a bit disappointing. i think that benfica have regressed and could be the team to finish bottom. we may end up battling it out with shakthar for 2nd place. they mauled us over there before but we're a better team now and the rumour in glasgow is we could be getting eidar gudjohnsen on loan for the season. apparently a deal's been done with barca but gudjohnsen wanted to play CL so he was waiting to see if we qualified before signing. i'll know soon enough whether it's true or not. anyway's i believe you fellas will be pretty pleased with the draw and rightfully so. we matched up fairly well against you last season but swap out gila and put in ronaldo and things take another huge upturn in milan's favour. good luck for the group stages... (not that you'll need it...)
Another very easy draw for us. How much exactly is Galliani paying UEFA for this treatment I actually watched Celtic and Shakhtar play yesterday so I can give my opinion on them. Celtic look no different than they did last year. They won't create many chances against us. And they really don't have anybody who they can rely on to finish when they do create a chance. IMO, Spartak were the better side for 75% of both legs. Celtic started to play a lot better in the 2nd half yesterday and when Spartak had a man sent off Celtic could have easily scored 2 or 3 goals. But the lack of a quality finisher killed them. Shakhtar made an amazing comeback yesterday versus Salzburg. They scored 2 goals in the last 10 minutes. They are a squad full of Brazilians and Lucarelli gives them a good presence in the box. But they really didn't get going until Nery Castillo came into the game in the 2nd half. He was wearing a mask but he still showed his quality. With more games together Castillo/Lucarelli will be a strike force to fear. I haven't seen Benfica play this year but it will be nice to welcome Rui Costa back to the San Siro. They will probably be favorites to advance out of the group with Milan. I don't see them causing us much problems. Italian clubs own Portuguese clubs. It's a bad match up for Benfica. If I were to predict order of finish it be like this: 1. Milan 2. Shakhtar 3. Benfica 4. Celtic But any of the other three teams could realistically finish 2nd as I don't see much difference between them.
there's every chance we will strengthen the squad before the friday night deadline as we have money to spend and now have gravesen off the wage bill. as for the games with spartak i think both teams were quite evenly matched but i dont think comparisons can be drawn between the two legs. by the time of the 2nd leg both teams know what is required to get through. celtic set out to play a certain way and get a certain result in moscow. that's why mcgeady was sacrificed for that match. milan will qualify easily from the group but i do believe it will be between ourselves and shakthar for the 2nd spot in the group.
fairly easy group i believe...i think were gonna be in good shape for us..celtic scare me since we had a hard time wit em last season, but atleast now its group stage n not 2 legged match...should be interesting...shaktar is always hard awy from san siro due to hostile territory...benfica doesnt scare me....im happy overall, n congrats to kaka..seedorf...n maldini!
Milan - Benfica 18/09 Shakhtar - Celtic 18/09 Celtic - Milan 03/10 Benfica - Shakhtar 03/10 Benfica - Celtic 24/10 Milan - Shakhtar 24/10 Celtic - Benfica 06/11 Shakhtar - Milan 06/11 Benfica - Milan 28/11 Celtic - Shakhtar 28/11 Milan - Celtic 04/12 Shakhtar - Benfica 04/12 fixture list for you guys to peruse.
I think Celtic get a good draw with this schedule. There is a good chance Milan will already be qualified for the 2nd round before their last group match versus Celtic at home. And Milan's track record in matches that don't matter is abysmal. Therefore, I see Celtic with a good chance of grabbing all three points at the San Siro.
we owned that award ceremony... haha only lost out on the goalkeeper award, but if we won that, the whole thing had to have been fixed..
Really nice, isn't it? So many trips to Milan for the Bhoys. Twice they were very close to get a sensation ... so the third time they'll definitely get something at San Siro!
Milan and Benfica to get thru Benfica-Milan will be the highlite of the group. I think Celtic will win all at Home and lose all on the road AC Milan could lose to Shakter they have Lucarelli and he knows alot about Italian Football and Castillo is very good. Benfica have Rui Costa who knows alot about Italian Football and Nuno Gomes. We have Di Maria and Cardozo and we know how Italian teams work. Last time Benfica played in the San Siro the game was great 4-3 loss but our squad is strong. And alot of AC Milan's key players are Brazilian and trust me we know how they play. Don't underestimate your group
Celtic and Shakhtar battling it out for 2nd? Are you kidding me?? Shakhtar isnt a bad team but their not on any of our levels. No wait im glad people underestimate Benfica, keep doing it, Benfica and Celtic are an evenly matched team. Lost 3-0, won 3-0 against Celtic. Oh and should I mention the we beat Liverpool 1-0, then 2-0, whowere the reigning champions of the previous season, we should do it again. Correction... 1.Milan 2.Benfica 3.Celtic 4.Shakhtar You dont see any difference between them? Wow! Just wow! Do you know your futebol or only know about AC Milan? Exactly well said!!!
i think u guys fail to realize that we are not underestimating ne1...we r the defending champions so u must believe that we believe we r the best? so we feel comfortable playin ne1 n winning...if u had us in the group of milan barca chelsea n roma...i can almost guarantee that we would place us first...thats just the way milan fans r...we dont under estimate ne1 but we are scared of few if none competitors...celtic,benfica, and shaktar r all good teams, they r in the champs league after all....we wish them best of luck...but we will prevail
he knows nothing about either. spartak, he is the resident idiot, nobody listens to what he says. (I kid, I kid )