English clubs enjoy mixed fortunes in Champions League draw

All four English clubs will be quietly confident of making it to the knockout stages of the Champions League

The draw for the Champions League was made yesterday and it handed English clubs mixed fortunes.

Champions Manchester City was drawn in the same group as Bayern Munich, while Liverpool was drawn alongside holders Real Madrid.

Arsenal will meet Dortmund for a second year running and Chelsea look to have been handed the most comfortable draw of all the English clubs.

Manchester City

Manchester City faces Bayern Munich for a second consecutive season and will also face Serie A runners-up Roma and another team that the Citizens are familiar with CSKA Moscow. The group is considered this season’s group of death.

City defeated the Bavarians 3-2 at the Allianz Arena last season and will be looking for a similar result this season. Bayern did win the game at the Etihad Stadium though.

Roma were outstanding in Italy’s top-flight last season, but have lost influential centre-back Medhi Benatia to group rivals Bayern Munich and could be set to lose striker Mattia Destro, with Chelsea believed to be looking at signing the forward.

CSKA Moscow perennially appears in the group stage of the Champions League, but often underperform and at the moment look the weakest of the teams in the group. However, as always the trip to Moscow will likely provide visitors with dealing with tough weather conditions.

Liverpool

Liverpool were handed a very mixed bag in the draw, as they drew holders Real Madrid, but also drew dangerous Swiss outfit Basel and Champions League newcomers Ludogorets of Bulgaria, who will be making their first ever appearance in Europe’s elite competition.

Real Madrid will obviously be the Reds biggest obstacle to qualification from the group. However Reds fans will cast their mind back to 2009 when their team defeated Los Blancos 4-0 at Anfield, having already won 1-0 in the Spanish capital.

That tie was the only time the two teams have met in Europe’s elite competition, despite the pair winning the European Cup in its various guises on 15 occasions between them.

Swiss side Basel has proven dangerous opponents to English teams in Europe in recent years, having beaten both Liverpool and Tottenham in European competition in the recent years. They certainly will not be pushovers.

Ludogorets made it through to the group stages having seen off Romanians Steaua Bucharest in the play-off round. Founded in their current guise just 13 years ago Ludogorets have made extraordinary progress, even making the last 16 of the Europa League last season.

Arsenal

Arsenal faces German giants Dortmund for the third season out of the last four. The Gunners enjoyed mixed fortunes against the German team last season. Arsene Wenger’s men won 1-0 in Germany, but lost 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

Dortmund have been strong in the Champions League in recent seasons, getting to the semi-finals last season after suffering defeat in the final against arch-rivals Bayern Munich the previous season.

Galatasaray may have lost Didier Drogba, but they still have Dutch maverick Wesley Sneijder creating their attacks from midfield. The Turkish club are very ambitious and could be another threat to Arsenal in the group.

They were surprise qualifiers for the knockout stages last season, qualifying for the last 16 at the expense of Italian giants Juventus. Making it to the knockout stages of this season’s competition may be just as difficult.

The final team in the group is Belgium champions Anderlecht. They picked-up just one point from their group games last season and seem to have struggled to make any impact on the competition in past years.

Chelsea

Chelsea have been handed what looks like the easiest draw out of the English sides, having been drawn alongside Sporting Lisbon, Schalke and Maribor.

Sporting Lisbon finished second in the Portuguese top-flight last season to make it to the group stages, but are regarded as a team that have underachieved in recent years. Sporting returns to the Champions League after three seasons in the Europa League.

Sporting signed Manchester United winger Nani on a season-long loan this summer and have highly-rated young Scottish attacking midfielder Ryan Gauld amongst their ranks, who has been dubbed ‘the Scottish Messi’

Schalke have slightly more recent Champions League experience than Sporting, having made it through to the knockout stages for the past two seasons.

The team that finished third in the Bundesliga last season topped Arsenal’s group two seasons ago, beating the Gunners in the process. However, they are not a team that should give Jose Mourinho and co. many sleepless nights.

Maribor are the lowest rank team in the group, having made it through to the group stages by beating Celtic 2-1 on aggregate in the play-off round. The Slovenians will again look to star player and record-scorer Marcos Tavares to inspire them to success.

No doubt they will be considered the whipping boys of the group and the other teams will be looking at the Slovenians as the weak link in the group.

Progress

All four English clubs have a good chance of progressing to the knockout stages from their groups. Chelsea will automatically be regarded as favourites to go through, as their group does not contain a major force in European football.

However, in football there are always surprises and you can never write anybody off. Most of the English sides will be satisfied with their draws and will be confident of progression to the last 16 of the competition.

Will the English teams be satisfied with their Champions League draws?