The pots are now set for tomorrow's Champions League group stage draw. They are as follows: POT 1 Real Madrid Eintracht Frankfurt Manchester City AC Milan Bayern Munich Paris Saint-Germain FC Porto Ajax POT 2 Liverpool Chelsea Barcelona Juventus Atletico Madrid Sevilla RB Leipzig Tottenham Hotspur POT 3 Borussia Dortmund FC Salzburg Shakhtar Donetsk Inter Milan Napoli Benfica Sporting CP Bayer Leverkusen POT 4 Rangers Dinamo Zagreb Marseille FC Copenhagen Club Brugge Celtic Viktoria Plzen Maccabi Haifa Who do folks fancy?
Bayern Inter Rangers. Just kidding. My initial thought was: Frankfurt Shakhtar Maccabi. But that is a lot of traveling. Revised: Frankfurt Salzburg Copenhagen/Brugge/Scotland. Though I'm not sure how playing in Scotland will be (thinking atmosphere/energy).
I'd love to get Eintracht from pot A, not because they're the easiest fixtures (though they are), but because my mate Vinnie is a season-ticket holder at the Waldstadion, and I'm almost certain to do one of the two, home or away. I'd rather do home, but might struggle to come up with a second ticket for Vinnie, whereas he's got two season tickets and can get me into the away fixture with certainty. Taking that out of it, I'd like Real Madrid, Benfica, and Rangers/Marseille. Then again, advancing would be nice, too, so maybe substituting an easier tie for one of them would work. edit: Let's just go with Eintracht/Benfica/Rangers and leave it at that.
My strategy is a glamour club from pot 1, one of the easier teams in pot 3 (as the potential competition for qualification) and a fun team from 4. All while hoping for destinations that are easy to get to and safe for traveling fans. So my hope is for: Madrid Leverkusen Copenhagen Worst by these criteria might be: Porto Shaktar Marseille
I'd love Ajax. They are one of those clubs, like Benfica, who still hold loads of glamor for me, despite the dynamics of the modern game preventing them from being competitive at the highest levels. They are still among the biggest names in European football for me.
We get Eintracht, Sporting and Marseille - fantastic draw! Our new academy coach Yaya Touré is already paying dividends as he drew the teams!
A: Ajax, Liverpool, Napoli, Rangers B: Porto, Atlético Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Bruges C: Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Internazionale, Viktoria Plzen D: Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham Hotspur, Sporting, Marseille E: Milan, Chelsea, Salzburg, Dinamo F: Real Madrid, RB Leipzig, Shakhtar Donetsk, Celtic G: Manchester City, Sevilla, Borussia Dortmund, Copenhagen H: Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Benfica, Maccabi Haifa
CL, sure. As an incentive to take that latter competition seriously. But not Pot A, I agree. As for the groups. most look straight forward, though Group C will be named The Group of Death. Liverpool v. Rangers is going to be electric.
Hell, at least they're the champions of something. They deserve to be in it more than us, from that perspective.
Schedule: Tottenham CL group fixtures confirmed (all times UK):7/9: Marseille H 8pm13/9: Sporting CP A 5.45pm4/10: Frankfurt A 8pm12/10: Frankfurt H 8pm26/10: Sporting CP H 8pm1/11: Marseille A 8pm— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JackPittBrooke) August 27, 2022 In that thread he lists all fixtures for the club through the world cup. After the September international break, 13 games in 6 weeks. Nuts.
A little background on our French CL opponents Marseille: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/sep/01/marseille-igor-tudor-ligue-1
Section: 323 Row: 60 Seat: 140 This is where I will be sitting in our stadium for our Champions League fixture v Eintracht Frankfurt on 12 October (my birthday, coincidentally). It is in the South Stand, and as it's 60 rows up, I'd guess I'll have a panoramic view (to put it euphemistically). I'll be in row 10 in the North Stand the following Saturday (v Everton), so views will be much better then ... at least while the action is at that end, anyway. But views schmiews, the salient point is that I'll be returning to Tottenham for the first time in over three years. Thanks covid. I hope we don't suck.
Incidentally, Eintracht Frankfurt, who we play away in the Champions League on Wednesday, are coming into form. They made some significant changes over the Summer and appear to be beginning to gel. We've got them in games 3 and 4 in the group stage, and if we're not careful, we can find ourselves out of it in short order. I don't mean to overreact to a disappointing North London Derby, but we need to find a bit of form before too long.
The draw for the last 16 takes place on Monday, November 7th. Here are our possible opponents: Club Brugge, Inter, AC Milan, RB Leipzig, Dortmund, PSG.
Both Milan clubs have had their troubles with Spurs in the past. I'd love to do Brugge away*, but there's no way I have near enough loyalty points to get a ticket. My first time seeing Spurs live in Europe was v Brugge, back in '06. UEFA Cup group stage. 3-1, Berbatov with a brace and Keano with the other. Three days later was the 2-1 win over Chelsea. Good week, that. Anyway, yeah ... PSG ... for glory. The Milan clubs 'feel' like bigger ties to me ('cause I'm old); but if we're honest, PSG are the biggest dog in the list. Let's have 'em. *hell, I'd like to do any of 'em, really.