2011/12 Champions League Groups Revealed
- By A.J. Ryder on August 26, 2011 03:34 GMT
Despite qualifying for the Champions League proper for the first time in the clubs' history, Manchester City fans will likely be a tad disappointed after being handed the trickiest draw of all of the English clubs – even Arsenal (who had to beat out Udinese over two legs to qualify) were given a relatively straightforward route to the knockout stages.
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The Citizens must face off against the likes of former champions Bayern Munich (what happens if City score two quick ones to win the fixture in injury time?) as well as the classy Spanish side Villareal and Italian club Napoli, who are no slouches either.
While Manchester City Football Club itself may lack Champions League experience, their big spending owners have been able to pepper the squad with Champions League calibre players like David Silva, Eden Dzeko, Sergio “Kun” Aguero and Carlos Tevez among others.
Out of all the English managers, Sir Alex Ferguson is likely to be the happiest out of the lot after United were handed a group with Benfica, Basel and some Romanian club nobody has ever heard of. Oh, wait, it was Otelul Gulati... of course.
Arsenal will be forced to do battle with Marseille, Olympiakos and Borussia Dortmund. In many other years, Arsenal would be expected to run roughshod over clubs like these but (despite a solid performance against Udinese) they have looked a bit up and down so far this season. Robin Van Persie seems to be providing some fantastic leadership and the Gunners will be looking to capitalize on this.
Chelsea have a favourable draw with Bayer Leverkusen, BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen in their group. It doesn't look like anything Chelsea can't handle though many sides (Barcelona in particular) have learned not to underestimate Eastern European sides you can't pronounce.
The odds haven't been changed around too much by the bookmakers with Barcelona still the favourites at 13/8, Real Madrid priced at 5/1 and Manchester United trading at an 11/2 margin.
