Monday September 01, 2008 - Champions League Group stage

After qualifying round ended, followed the draw for season 2008/2009. In comparison to the last season, there are few teams no one could have even supposed they will get to the group stage. First of all, there are BATE Borisov whose success was mainly the result of the favorable draw while on the other hand, we see Anortozis who demolished Olympiakos thus marking the biggest success in the history of the club. Aalborg are the third privileged club.

The toughest group is group H with last year’s UEFA Cup winner, Zenit, then Juventus, Champions League returnee, after Serie A suspension. Real Madrid are regular candidates for the competition and an absolute outsider in the group, Bate Borisov.

Group D will be very interesting, where Liverpool, the most serious candidates for the first place will have to fight PSV who always fight hard for the second round, and there are also Olimpic Marseille attempting to regain the old reputation in Europe, and totally unpredictable Atletico Madrid.

Chelsea and Roma seem to have the easiest path to the quarterfinals, since Bordeaux and less known CFR Kluz will join them in the group.

Elite returnees, Fiorentina will fight Bayern on their way to the quarterfinals who disappointed a bit in the last two seasons at least when it comes to European competitions, so we can now expect them to kick off in Europe at full speed. Olympic Lyon expect a standard qualification to the next round, and whether they will succeed depends on how Benzema, Junino and the mates will function. Total outsiders in this group are Romanian champions Steaua…

Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce, Dynamo Kiev... Arsenal rejuvenated the team again and made a lot of changes so the quarterfinals is a big success for them… Fenerbahce are out of form but they will fix that, while Porto are lurking for their chance and of course Dynamo Kiev are always dangerous...

We saw Barcelona getting to the next round without problems, while Sporting Lisbon have a fine opportunity since it seems that Basel and Sahtjor still can't rise to the occasion in the elite.

Jose Mourinho is in front of quarterfinal open door since except for Werder that are expected to play much better than last year, there are also Panathinaikos and rooky Anortozis who will probably serve as the means to improve goal margin.

And finally, title defender Manchester UTD are in an easy group where the main rivals are Villarreal, while Celtic are always lurking from behind, waiting for the big ones to make a mistake. It seems that Manchester will spend the winter in Europe without problems, and it is hard to tell whether Celtic or Villarreal will join them, especially when you know that the Scottish were always great fighters, while the Spanish side are playing with a slightly changed line-up.

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