For my regular visitors, the following post is for my benefit, and my benefit alone, so I wont be offended if you don’t read on, but I assure you, normal service will resume shortly.
The teams were drawn yesterday, for this season’s European Champions League competition. The following teams will face each other within their groups.
Group A – Prediction, Bayern and Juve
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Club Brugge
Rapid Vienna
Group B, – Prediction Ajax, and Arsenal
Arsenal
Ajax
Sparta Prague
Thun (who?)
Group C -Prediction Barcelona and Panathanaikos
Barcelona
Panathanaikos
Werder Bremen
Udinese (who?)
Group D – Prediction, Manchester United and Villareal
Manchester United (Yay!)
Villareal
Lille
Benfica
Group E – Prediction Milan and PSV
AC Milan
PSV Eindhoven
Schalke
Fenerbahce
Group F- Prediction, Real and Olympiakos
Real Madrid
Lyon
Olympiakos
Rosenborg
Group G – Prediction, Chelsea and Liverpool
Liverpool
Chelsea
Anderlecht
Real Betis
Group H – Prediction, Inter and Rangers
Inter Milan
Porto
Rangers
Artmedia Bratislavia
Commentary
As the only group I’m really interested in is Group D, I’ll start off with them…
Lille are a French team who somehow manage to get into the Champion’s League year after year, but I suspect that this is because the French domestic league is so poor, with most of the best French players housed in England (living with Arsene Wenger.)
Villareal beat Everton in the qualifiers to progress to the Champions League proper, but were it not for a blind referee, things may have well been different. Having watched both legs, I can’t say that I see anything within the team that will trouble United. They are organised, but we have a much better strike-force in Rooney and Van Nistelrooy, and defensively we are superior to them, although, Gary Neville’s injury early on in the match against Debreceni was very unfortunate.
As for Benfica, we should be able to dispatch them quite easily.
All in all Sir Alex Ferguson should be pleased, and if we f*ck up, God help the players.
As for Arsenal’s group, they’ll struggle through the group stages as they usually do, and eventually get beaten in the next round. Wenger still hasn’t been able to prep his players for European competition. Henry hates physical games, so he usually goes missing during these matches.
As for Arsenal and Chelsea, I think Chelsea will top the group, and Liverpool will qualify in second place. It’s a mouth-watering prospect though.
Two years ago, I would have said that Rangers were in the group of death, but Porto aren’t the team they used to be since Mourinho left them, and how Bratislava qualified, I’ll never know. I expect Inter to top the group, with Rangers qualifying in second place.
It will be interesting to see how many of my predictions will be correct…
Normal service will resume shortly.
Scott
August 26
2:52 pm
Well Karen, there are some readers of yours that do care and like this post very much.
OK, so I may be the only one, but it still counts. 🙂
I think ManU got the easiest draw. They should whip through their group with little to no problems.
Chelsea and Liverpool in the same group? Boy oh boy, that rivalry will heat up some more. Of course they only have each other to really but heads against.
I say Real wins it all this year. With my “longshot” choice being PSV (but then they are one of my favorite teams).
Dawn
August 26
3:03 pm
OK, I don’t do football. But I did read it – don’t understand it though. LOL
And I knew even before looking at who it was, that Scott would reply.
Paz
August 26
4:31 pm
Hey there!
Figured I’d add my two cents to this post: While I like to watch soccer, I don’t do it much and don’t really keep up with it.
I only watch the World Cup (is that what it’s called? LOL!)with regularity. That’s about it.
From your list above, I’ll be rooting for the Italian team, the Spanish team… who else…Is there a Greek team? Alright, I’ll vote for them, too.
Club Brugge: Is that a team from Belgium?
And what about Rapid Vienna? Are they from Austria?
If so, I’ll be rooting for them, too. ;-))))
Paz (who has her own twisted way of watching soccer and rooting for teams)
Indida
August 26
4:31 pm
I always wondered why the game we called football was played with the hands, while everywhere else in the world the game called football is played with the foot. And we call it soccer.
Damn Americans, we just have to be difficult but we love to talk about the French.
Scott
August 26
4:59 pm
Paz, yes Brugge is from Belgium. And Olympiakos is from Greece.
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McVane
August 26
6:04 pm
Man United? Are you originally from Madchester? Or are you hedging your bets by siding with the best known footy team in the world? 😛
BTW, Indida, Scotland has its own professional American football team. :> I think the team is called the Scottish Claymores.
Hm, there’s a romance waiting in there somewhere …
Rosario
August 26
6:42 pm
Ahhh, Karen, don’t count out Villarreal yet! They haven’t lost many players, and they were brilliant late last season in the Liga! Or maybe I just like Riquelme and Forlan, LOL!
Sam
August 27
5:40 pm
I Love the Juve – it’s my baby. If you read ‘A Grand Passion’, you’ll see why!
My husband, being French, is for Lyon, of course. More the reason because we used to live there.
I Love to watch football on the telly. My hubby and I curl up and I always root for the opposite team. (sometimes he kicks me out of the room, lol)
Hugs,
Sam
Desiree Erotique
August 27
9:46 pm
Football..football? What is that? LOL
Hope you’re doing well, Karen!
Karen Scott
August 28
12:09 pm
Scott, Real Madrid aren’t going to win this year, they’re just not the same team! Your right though, United’s draw on paper seems to be a very easy one!
Dawn, it’s a lot simpler than it looks. Honest. *g*
So Paz, I guess you’ll be routing for Panathanaikos, Olympiakos, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and both Milans? What kind of cock-eyed support is that, lol!!
Indida, I always wondered why your brand of football is called football, when the only time the players kick is to try to gain those two (?) extra points if they’re close enough to the goal mouth.
Maili, I inherited the support. My father went to university there, and the rest of the family had no choice in the matter! Paul used to play American football actually. I believe they had a game against the Scottish Claymores once (I think) and lost!
Rosario, I think it’s the Diego Forlan factor! I bet he finally manages to score at Old Trafford, even though he couldn’t hit a barn door when he was one of us! Anyway, I didn’t discount them, I think they’ll qualify second behind us!
Sam, I read a Grand Passion actually, as I recall, it was a good read, and it was a departure from all the stuiff that I’d been reading at that time. I got a buzz off your team name-dropping!
Des, football is the game of love… erm or something like that, lol!
Paz
August 29
12:58 pm
Karen wrote:
So Paz, I guess you’ll be routing for Panathanaikos, Olympiakos, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and both Milans? What kind of cock-eyed support is that, lol!!
LOL! Too funny! That’s the way I like to watch and root for the teams. It also depends on who they’ll be playing against.
Thanks, Scott for clearing up the two teams for me.
Paz
P.S. I see you have word verification. Have you been getting a lot of spammers?