Champions League Group Stage

The champions league group stage draw was done today. The draw was done in Monaco Thursaday evening and the seeding were very interesting.

Pot one: Manchester United, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Porto, Inter Milan.

Pot two: Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon, Villarreal, AC Milan, Valencia, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Benfica.

Pot three: Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Basle, Lille, BATE.

Pot four: Borussia Dortmund, Dinamo Zagreb, Napoli, APOEL, Genk, Trabzonspor, Otelul Galati, Viktoria Plzen.

All of Europe's current elite are in pot 1 (yes even Arsenal) and each will be grouped with one team from pot 2 ,one from pot 3 and 4.

The draw took place and football fans are in for a treat this season. Here are the results of the draw:

Group A:  Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli

Group B:  Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor

Group C:  Manchester United, Benfica,  FC Basle, Otelul Galati

Group D:  Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

Group E:  Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

Group F:  Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund

Group G:  Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL Nicosia

Group H:  Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

And there they are, the teams that will be fighting to be crowned champions of Europe.

The most eye catching group is of course Group H. Barcelona will face AC Milan, but eyes will also be on big wage paying, money spending, we buy everything Manchester City. Manchester City will face a tough task against the likes of Villarreal, who are no push over, Bayern Munich, they speak for them selves and if City sit back too much, they can just ask Manchester United what happen to them when they played Bayern. And last Napoli, the Italians have been on the rise in recent years and will be looking to impress.

Manchester United and Inter Milan have been handed relatively easy groups and should progress to the Knock-Out stage, not to say it is a given but these two teams stand miles apart from the respective group members.

Real Madrid will once again face off with Lyon. And the most open group would have to be Group F, as Arsenal (still considered one of Europe's eilte) will have to fight for all there wins in this group.