Group A
AZ Alkmaar
Zenit St Petersburg
Everton
Nurnberg
Larissa
Between the top 4. Nurnberg are having an atrocious season but they’re not a bad side. I think they’ll pip Everton to 3rd
Top
Group B
Panathinaikos
Lokomotiv Moscow
Atletico Madrid
Copenhagen
Aberdeen
Brutally tough draw for Aberdeen but good games for their supporters. Expect the top 3 to qualify but Copenhagen will be a threat to Panathanaikos. Lokomotiv and Atletico will cruise it.
Group C
Villarreal
AEK Athens
Fiorentina
Mlada Boleslav
Elfsborg
Top 3 to qualify with ease
Group D
Basle
Hamburg
Stade Rennais
Dinamo Zagreb
Brann
Dinamo Zagreb should overhaul either or both of Basle and Rennes to progress with Hamburg. Rennes to lose out.
Group E
Bayer Leverkusen
Sparta Prague
Spartak Moscow
Toulouse
FC Zurich
Top 3 should get through
Group F
Bayern Munich
Bolton
Braga
Red Star Belgrade
Aris Thessaloniki
No real threat for Bayern Munich here. Bolton and Braga will probably make it through with Red Star finishing bottom.
Group G
Anderlecht
Tottenham
Getafe
Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Aalborg
Spurs, Getafe and Anderlecht in that order.
Group H
Bordeaux
Austria Vienna
Galatasaray
Panionios
Helsingsborgs
Galatasaray, Panionios and Helsingsborgs ahead of Bordeaux and Austria Vienna.
Aberdeen are home to Copenhagen on the 20th December and if they win that game they’ll go through to the next round, despite that being their only win. It’s too easy to accumulate coefficient points in those group stages.
Hope they go through but they don’t deserve to get any further.
No way will Everton fail to qualify. That’s a very handy group for them.
I have no recollection whatsoever of posting this but it’s good to have been proved correct after rocko’s embarrassing dismissal of Everton’s chances.
I do agree about the co-efficient points weighting for uefa cup games though as the points awarded for victories is set way, way too high. That means team who go on a couple of uefa cup runs in succession attain an artificially high position in the co-efficient table even though they haven’t played Champions League opposition. Then if they subsequently do finish high enough in their domestic league to get into the CL their points tally is such that they often come in as 2nd seeds, in some cases skipping over teams who’ve been holding their own against CL opposition over the past few years, rather than starting out as 3rd or 4th seeds.
Yeah there are so many teams qualifying for the Champions League these days that if you haven’t earned European points in that competition then you shouldn’t really have a seeding. They did tweak the seedings last year to give an extra bonus for getting CL group stages but I think they need to repeat that exercise. Might happen as part of the new format for the CL.
The uefa cup is on this week and the huns are at home to Panathinaikos tonight. Apparently the Celtic Shop on Argyle Street in Glasgow (the equivalent of Grafton Street) has a huge poster on the front window advertising the club’s products in Greek and is doing a roaring trade with the visiting supporters all day!
At least Rangers didnt concede at home. Beating Lyon 3.0 away shows me that they are well able to score in Panathinaikos. If Rangers stay in the competition it gives them more games. I know I want Arsenal to stay in Europe as long as possible so they may get fatigued and drop points.
Funny stuff on you’re on SKy Sports with some loony Arsenal fan giving out about pundits saying that Arsenal don’t have a strong enough squad to win everything, unlike Utd and Chelsea.
I think if Arsenal lose in the cup on Saturday they have a better chance of winning the league. United last year really suffered from Mid April onwards as the defence was on sick leave. To think that in the home leg against Ac the back four was O’Shea, Brown, Heinze and Evra. I always think that if Rio and Vidic started this game then Kaka wouldnt have got as much space as he did. Evra and Heinze run into each other still haunts to me this day.