Battle of Britain looms as Manchester United draw Rangers in Champions League
English Premier League giants Manchester United are gearing up for a Battle of Britain after they drew Scottish Premier League champions Rangers in the UEFA Champions League group stage today.
The pair were placed in Group C alongside La Liga outfit Valencia and Turkish side Bursaspor when the draw was held in Monaco. The British pair have met before in the Champions League when they were drawn together in the 2003-04 tournament. United came out tops in both matches, winning 1-0 at Ibrox and defeating Rangers 3-0 at Old Trafford.
Tottenham Hotspur have a tough ask ahead of them if they are to progress to the knockout stages after drawing defending champions Inter Milan, German Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen and Dutch Eredivisie champions FC Twente.
Chelsea face French champions
EPL champions Chelsea were drawn in Group F with French league winners Olympique Marseille — where the Stamford Bridge club’s former midfielder Didier Deschamps is the manager — Russian outfit Spartak Moscow, who recently signed winger Aiden McGeady from Celtic, and Slovakian champions MSK Zilina.
Arsenal appear to have had the most favourable draw of any of the British teams in the draw. Arsene Wenger’s men will have to weave their way past Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk, Portuguese outfit Braga and Serbian SuperLiga winners FK Partizan.
'Group of Death'
The draw also saw a trio of former champions placed in what has already been described as this season's 'Group of Death' with AC Milan, Jose Mourinho’s La Liga giants Real Madrid and Dutch outfit Ajax set to battle it out for a place in the next round with French Ligue 1 club Auxerre.
Elsewhere, 2009 winners and Spanish champions Barcelona have been drawn with Super League Greece winners Panathanaikos, Danish Superliga champions Copenhagen and Russian champions Rubin Kazan, who shocked Barca by winning 2-1 at the Camp Nou at the same stage of the competition last season.
The first round group stage matches will be held on September 14 and 15.
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