UEFA Super Cup Preview

Most may think that Friday's UEFA Super Cup match between Barcelona and Shakhtar is more show than substance. Most would expect Barcelona and it's plethora of stars to run over the Ukrainians. However there are a couple of factors in Shakhtar's favour.

Since the Super Cup became a single match affair in Monte Carlo, the UEFA Cup winners have beaten the European Champions 7 out of 11 times. The most common theory would be that the UEFA Cup winners are motivated to beat the best in Europe and go harder while the Champions League winners just want to get the match over with and move on to more important things.

There is even more motivation in this year's edition because Barcelona and Shaktar were in the same Group in last year's champion's league. Barcelona won in a very controversial match.
Barca lucky to get out alive, fumes Shakhtar coach Lucescu

Shakhtar have not forgotten and will be out to prove all the experts wrong.

I hope for an entertaining game. I'll say a 2-2 draw.

To Advance After Abandonment

An incredible story from the newly formed Europa League. Dinamo Bucharest of Romania had to abandon their 1st leg home tie with Slovan Liberec of the Czech Republic due to fan violence (they were down 0-2 at the time). In soccer to forfeit means a 3-0 defeat. Apparently that was not enough because there was a 2nd leg and incredibly Dinamo Bucharest scored 3 goals on the road to send the match into extra time.

Video of the 3 goals and the end of shootout.





I will now follow them closely as I have a cinderella team to cheer for now in a competition I didn't really care about.

The Draw for the Group Stage of the Europa League goes Friday in Monaco before the Super Cup match.

There will now be 12 groups of 4. Top 2 teams in each group advance and those 24 teams will be joined by the 8 3rd place finishers from the Champions League for a 32-team knockout tournament.

Pot 1

Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) (holders)
Werder Bremen (GER)
Villarreal (ESP)
Roma (ITA)
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
Sporting CP (POR)
Hamburg (GER)
Benfica (POR)
Valencia (ESP)
Panathinaikos (GRE)
Ajax (NED)
Steaua Bucharest (ROM)

Pot 2

Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Basel (SWI)
Lille (FRA)
Celtic (SCO)
Everton (ENG)
Club Brugge (BEL)
Heerenveen (NED)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Austria Wien (AUT)
Copenhagen (DEN)
Lazio (ITA)

Pot 3

Hertha BSC (GER)
Sparta Prague (CZE)
Dinamo Bucharest (ROM)
AEK Athens (GRE)
Slavia Prague (CZE)
Levski Sofia (BUL)
Athletic Bilbao (ESP)
Partizan (SRB)
Hapoel Tel Aviv (ISR)
Twente (NED)
Dinamo Zagreb (HRV)
Fulham (ENG)

Pot 4

CSKA Sofia (BUL)
Toulouse (FRA)
CFR Cluj (ROM)
Genoa (ITA)
Rapid Wien (AUT)
Timişoara (ROM)
BATE (BLR)
Nacional (POR)
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Sturm Graz (AUT)
Ventspils (LAT)
Sheriff Tiraspol (MOL)

Any of these teams your favourites?

UEFA Champions League Draw - Group Stage

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: Man Utd, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsberg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich
Group D: Chelsea, FC Porto, Athletico Madrid, APOEL Nicosia
Group E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debreceni
Group F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, FC Raban Kazan
Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni
Group H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos, Standard Liege

No Death Groups for the English Teams with three of them being extremely easy. Only Liverpool has a competitive group. I watched both legs of Debreceni and they were pretty organized and had alot of skill. They might surprise a few people.

Rangers got the easiest group they could have imagined. If they don't advance then they're just crap.

Group A and Group F probably the toughest.

Thursday's Champions League Draw

The top 32 teams in Europe will discover their fate on Thursday 17:30 European Central Time as they are placed into 8 groups in the UEFA Champions League

They are places into 4 pots as follows:

Pot 1
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
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
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

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)

Two teams from the same country cannot be in the same group

VfL Wolfsburg, FC Rubin Kazan, AZ Alkmaar, R. Standard de Liège, AFC Unirea Urziceni, Debreceni VSC, APOEL FC and FC Zürich will all be making their debuts in a competition which sees 18 nations represented in the group stage this year.

A couple of thoughts. Seville is probably the weakest team in Pot 1 and since they cannot get Real Madrid, they only ones they really have to dodge are Lyon and Inter. This may result in a very easy group. Real Madrid have a 2/3 chance of drawing an English team. Rangers are fortunate to be in Pot 2 as they will probably avoid a death group. They have a 50/50 chance of drawing an English team.

What's a good death group?

How about

Barcelona
Inter
Bordeaux
Wolfsberg