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The greatest annual tournament in the world is about to get underway!!

The final qualifying matches were played last night so now we have our 32 final teams. The group drawings will be announced later today. There are 8 groups total, 1 club from each pot below will be drawn to form each group.

England, Italy and Spain lead all countries with 4 clubs each. France and Germany have 3 clubs. Russia has 2 clubs. Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine have 1 club each.

Group play starts on September 15th, a home/away against the other 3 teams in each group. The top two teams of each group advance to the first knockout draw while the third places team advances to the Europa League round of 32.

Pot 1 Club
1 FC Barcelona (ESP, holders)
2 Chelsea FC (ENG)
3 Liverpool FC (ENG)
4 Manchester United FC (ENG)
5 AC Milan (ITA)
6 Arsenal FC (ENG)
7 Sevilla FC (ESP)
8 FC Bayern München (GER)

Pot 2 Club
9 Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)
10 FC Internazionale Milano (ITA)
11 Real Madrid CF (ESP)
12 PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)
13 FC Porto (POR)
14 AZ Alkmaar (NED)
15 Juventus (ITA)
16 Rangers FC (SCO)

Pot 3 Club
17 Olympiacos FC (GRE)
18 Olympique de Marseille (FRA)
19 FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
20 VfB Stuttgart (GER)
21 ACF Fiorentina (ITA)
22 Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
23 FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA)
24 Beşiktaş JK (TUR)

Pot 4 Club
25 VfL Wolfsburg (GER)
26 R. Standard de Liège (BEL)
27 Maccabi Haifa FC (ISR)
28 FC Zürich (SUI)
29 FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)
30 AFC Unirea Urziceni (ROU)
31 APOEL FC (CYP)
32 Debreceni VSC (HUN)

another year, and again, none of my teams are in the mix

(i suppose when your squads are Newcastle, Bilbao and Lyonnaise such is life)

so I'm looking for a team to get behind, if there are recommendations (no EPL, Serie or Ligue teams) I'm glad to hear them...

Anyone watching the drawings? Good god the female presenter is GORGEOUS....

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:another year, and again, none of my teams are in the mix

(i suppose when your squads are Newcastle, Bilbao and Lyonnaise such is life)

so I'm looking for a team to get behind, if there are recommendations (no EPL, Serie or Ligue teams) I'm glad to hear them...

Howza bout the club of Beckenbauer, Maier, Muller, and Kahn.



But be warned, with the way we've been playing, we'll probably finish dead last in our group.

The group stage is set. Some tough groups...

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B (watch out for the defending Bundesliga champ...)
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

bandl wrote:The group stage is set. Some tough groups...

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B (watch out for the defending Bundesliga champ...)
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

My predictions in bold.

bandl wrote:The group stage is set. Some tough groups...

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B (watch out for the defending Bundesliga champ...)
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

And mine

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:another year, and again, none of my teams are in the mix

(i suppose when your squads are Newcastle, Bilbao and Lyonnaise such is life)

so I'm looking for a team to get behind, if there are recommendations (no EPL, Serie or Ligue teams) I'm glad to hear them...

How about the last “small club” to win the Champions League, FC Porto.

2-time Champion League winners (1987 & 2004)
1-time UEFA Cup winners (2003)
24-time Portuguese Liga champs (4 times defending)

They are not your traditional big spending club like you’ll find in England, Spain, Italy or Germany. Year after year they are all but forced to sell off their high price-tag players to the Big 4. But they are still very adept at finding and grooming unknown players into international stars, including some current players like Anderson (ManU), Pepe (Real Madrid) Deco (Barca, now Chelsea), Bosingwa (Chelsea) Quaresma (Inter), Lisandro (Lyon) and Gomes (Tottenham). Yet they still remain competitive in the Liga and Europe every year.

And if you ever happen to find yourself in Porto, they also have one of the best and most beautiful stadiums in Europe, Estadio Do Dragao, built to replace their old stadium and to host the for the 2004 EuroCup. I’ve been to the stadium, it’s damn awesome.

DukeJack wrote:

bandl wrote:The group stage is set. Some tough groups...

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B (watch out for the defending Bundesliga champ...)
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

And mine

Freaking Bordeaux?????? I thought you were a Bayern fan?

bandl wrote:The group stage is set. Some tough groups...

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B (watch out for the defending Bundesliga champ...)
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

My prediction underlined because bold is too damn hard to read on CS.com.

Grizalltheway wrote:

DukeJack wrote:
And mine

Freaking Bordeaux?????? I thought you were a Bayern fan?

Bordeaux is the defending french league champ and has won all 3 of their matches so far to start this season. Bayern hasn't won yet in their 3 league matches...

bandl wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:
Freaking Bordeaux?????? I thought you were a Bayern fan?

Bordeaux is the defending french league champ and has won all 3 of their matches so far to start this season. Bayern hasn't won yet in their 3 league matches...

It's our (now) usual beginning of the season slump. Plus, Robben's on his way. And winning the French league is like winning the Big Sky; it's nice, but certainly no guarantee that a team will do well against outside competition.

Grizalltheway wrote:

bandl wrote:
Bordeaux is the defending french league champ and has won all 3 of their matches so far to start this season. Bayern hasn't won yet in their 3 league matches...

It's our (now) usual beginning of the season slump. Plus, Robben's on his way. And winning the French league is like winning the Big Sky; it's nice, but certainly no guarantee that a team will do well against outside competition.

Robben is the shiznit. He is going to do well in a physical-n-skill league like the Bundesliga. He's got size, speed, power AND skill. Should be fun to watch him there.

So you're saying Montana is like FC Bordeaux? Got it.

bandl wrote:

Grizalltheway wrote:
It's our (now) usual beginning of the season slump. Plus, Robben's on his way. And winning the French league is like winning the Big Sky; it's nice, but certainly no guarantee that a team will do well against outside competition.

Robben is the shiznit. He is going to do well in a physical-n-skill league like the Bundesliga. He's got size, speed, power AND skill. Should be fun to watch him there.

So you're saying Montana is like FC Bordeaux? Got it.

I just can't really take Ligue 1 seriously when it comes to the CL. Lyon, their best overall team, struggles to make it past the quarters. Not that the Bundesliga has fared much better in recent years, but still.

Bandl said most of what I was thinking, Bordeaux has been playing extremely well for the last season plus - Milan were stupid to put the buy-out fee so low for Gourcuff. And I will only believe Robben when Hoeness is shaking his hand and he is donning the red. European transfer rumors are such shit I can't believe anyone takes them seriously until the player is introduced. And don't give me Wikipedia as proof, either.

And it remains to be seen how van Gaal handles Bayern - Klinsmann was supposed to fix the teams collective heads, and only succeeded with Schweinsteiger. van Bommel is still captain, still can't lead, our defense still can't stop anyone, and Rensing - Bayern management play too much like a family sometimes. He is not the elite caliber goalie Bayern need to compete at the level they should.

Right now, expecting Juventus and Bordeaux to advance and Bayern to drop to the Europa League is reasonable.

how i missed that lyon was in is beyond me...

I've been shopping for a bundesliga team for awhile, and a Sirie A team... haven't found one that tripped my fancy...

Loved Newcastle for the beer that bears their name, and the Toons, and Michael Owen...
Lyon is where my family is from in France... so it's a geographic thing
Bilbao is mostly because I've been fascinated by the Basques for a long, long time, and grew to love Bilbao as a result...

for the most part I like underdoggish teams that contend, but aren't big spenders... (think the Minnesota Twins of their respective leagues )

Champions League Groups
Group A
Bayern
Juventus
Bordeaux
Mac. Haifa

Group B
Man United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg

Group C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
FC Zurich

Group D
Chelsea
FC Porto
Atl. Madrid
APOEL

Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debreceni

Group F
Barcelona
Inter Milan
Dyn. Kiev
Rubin Kazan

Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Uni. Urziceni

Group H
Arsenal
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Standard

my - less than informed on all teams - picks

I just want to say that I am not a fan of the UEFAs ranking/coefficient system.

How can Arsenal, a team that had to go through qualifying rounds in order to make it to the CL, be a Po1 1 team (along with all 3 other EPL teams) while Wolfsburg, who won the Bundegsliga, is a Pot 4 team (and is below Bayern/Stuttgart). Just doesn't make alot of sense to me.

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:how i missed that lyon was in is beyond me...

I was going to ask you if you were fan of some other Mayonnaisse french team I wasn't aware of...Lisandro (formerly of FC Port) lit it up with a hat trick in qualifying this week!

DukeJack wrote:Bandl said most of what I was thinking, Bordeaux has been playing extremely well for the last season plus - Milan were stupid to put the buy-out fee so low for Gourcuff. And I will only believe Robben when Hoeness is shaking his hand and he is donning the red. European transfer rumors are such shit I can't believe anyone takes them seriously until the player is introduced. And don't give me Wikipedia as proof, either.

And it remains to be seen how van Gaal handles Bayern - Klinsmann was supposed to fix the teams collective heads, and only succeeded with Schweinsteiger. van Bommel is still captain, still can't lead, our defense still can't stop anyone, and Rensing - Bayern management play too much like a family sometimes. He is not the elite caliber goalie Bayern need to compete at the level they should.

Right now, expecting Juventus and Bordeaux to advance and Bayern to drop to the Europa League is reasonable.

Can't argue about the Rensing thing. Although he's far from the only reason we've struggled out of the gate, I'd be happy to see Neuer between the posts at some point.

bandl wrote:I just want to say that I am not a fan of the UEFAs ranking/coefficient system.

How can Arsenal, a team that had to go through qualifying rounds in order to make it to the CL, be a Po1 1 team (along with all 3 other EPL teams) while Wolfsburg, who won the Bundegsliga, is a Pot 4 team (and is below Bayern/Stuttgart). Just doesn't make alot of sense to me.

isn't it largely based on the FIFA rankings of each countries top tier league? if so, it would explain why EPL and Serie A and La Liga tend to get those rankings (given they are the highest ranking leagues in the world)

bandl wrote:I just want to say that I am not a fan of the UEFAs ranking/coefficient system.

How can Arsenal, a team that had to go through qualifying rounds in order to make it to the CL, be a Po1 1 team (along with all 3 other EPL teams) while Wolfsburg, who won the Bundegsliga, is a Pot 4 team (and is below Bayern/Stuttgart). Just doesn't make alot of sense to me.

If Wolfsburg are behind Bayern/Stuttgart, then they probably factor in the team's performance in the CL last year.

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:

bandl wrote:I just want to say that I am not a fan of the UEFAs ranking/coefficient system.

How can Arsenal, a team that had to go through qualifying rounds in order to make it to the CL, be a Po1 1 team (along with all 3 other EPL teams) while Wolfsburg, who won the Bundegsliga, is a Pot 4 team (and is below Bayern/Stuttgart). Just doesn't make alot of sense to me.

isn't it largely based on the FIFA rankings of each countries top tier league? if so, it would explain why EPL and Serie A and La Liga tend to get those rankings (given they are the highest ranking leagues in the world)

Then why would Bayern and Stuttgart ranked higher than Wolfsburg? They are all from Germany.

bandl wrote:

TwinTownBisonFan wrote:
isn't it largely based on the FIFA rankings of each countries top tier league? if so, it would explain why EPL and Serie A and La Liga tend to get those rankings (given they are the highest ranking leagues in the world)

Then why would Bayern and Stuttgart ranked higher than Wolfsburg? They are all from Germany.

got me on that one...

Grizalltheway wrote:

bandl wrote:I just want to say that I am not a fan of the UEFAs ranking/coefficient system.

How can Arsenal, a team that had to go through qualifying rounds in order to make it to the CL, be a Po1 1 team (along with all 3 other EPL teams) while Wolfsburg, who won the Bundegsliga, is a Pot 4 team (and is below Bayern/Stuttgart). Just doesn't make alot of sense to me.

If Wolfsburg are behind Bayern/Stuttgart, then they probably factor in the team's performance in the CL last year.

That's plausible.

I don't have a huge problem with the ranking, just a little bit. In the end every team has an equal shot at winning it all no matter what the rankings says (unlike a certain level of football here in the U.S.)...

League coefficient

The league coefficient is used to rank the leagues of Europe, and thus determine the number of clubs from a league that will participate in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

The UEFA ranking determines the number of teams competing in the season after the next, not in the first season after the publication of the ranking. Thus, the 2009 ranking determines the proportion in 2010–11, not 2009–10.

This coefficient is determined by the results of the clubs of the leagues in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League games over the past five seasons. The number of points awarded each season (two for each win by a club from that league, one for a draw) is divided by the number of teams that participated for that nation in that season. This number is then truncated after three decimal places (e.g. 2 2/3 will be truncated to 2.666).

For the league coefficient the season's league coefficients for the last five seasons must be added up. In the preliminary rounds of both the Champions League and Europa League, the awarded points are halved. Bonus points are allocated for:

Qualifying for the Champions League group phase and Europa League round of 16. (4 bonus points)
Reaching the second round of the Champions League.
Reaching the quarter, semi and final of both Champions League and Europa League.
The bonus points are added to the number of points scored in a season.