Football Preview - UEFA Champions League Draw
10 more clubs have joined the 22 automatic entrants to complete the line-up for the 2010-11 UEFA Champions’ League group stage.
2nd legs of the play-off round were held on 24th and 25th August. Usual Champions League featuring clubs like Sevilla, Dynamo Kiev, Sparta Prague and Anderlecht could not overcome their rivals and will now compete in the second tier of the European club competition i.e. UEFA Europa League.
The most shocking result in the play-off round was produced by SC Braga of Portugal when they defeated Sevilla 4-3 in the second leg when playing away last night and 5-3 on aggregate.
SC Braga will make their first appearance in the group stage of the Champions League along with other five debutants including Tottenham Hotspurs, FC Twente, Tel-Aviv Hapoel, Bursaspor and Zilina.
Manchester United will be in the draws for the record 16th time out of the possible 19 (since change in the format of the competition from European Cup to Champions League in 1992). All 16 appearances of Manchester United have come in succession since their return to the competition after 25 years in 1994.
Both Spanish Giants Barcelona and Real Madrid will be making their 15th appearance in the Champions League, and 14th by AC Milan and Bayern Munich, and 13th by Arsenal.
In total, 18 countries will be represented in the draw. Tottenham Hotspurs win over Young Boys in the play-off round with 6-3 aggregate score means that England will be the only country to have 4 clubs in this year’s group stage. 3 teams each will participate from Spain, Italy, Germany and France while 2 each from Netherlands, Russia and Portugal.
Remarkably, only 12 of last year’s 32 group stage teams could keep their place in this year’s competition, which includes the holders Inter Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, Lyon, Real Madrid, Marseille, Rangers, Rubin Kazan and the losing finalists Bayern Munich.
The 32 teams are divided in four seeding pots which depend upon their coefficients. Coefficients of each European club are determined by their performance in domestic and continental competitions in past five years while the defending champions are always placed as the top-seeded team in the draw.
Eight groups will be formed with one team from each seeding pot. Teams from the same federation cannot face each other in either group stage or the first knock-out round.
For example, Tottenham Hotspurs cannot be drawn with Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal in the same group but could find any of Inter Milan, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Lyon in the same group.
Second pot contains a whole set of very competitive teams but the most important is Real Madrid. Apart from Barcelona, they can be drawn with any of the other seven Pot 1 teams, making the draw more intriguing. Cristiano Ronaldo can make his first visit to Old Trafford after his last year’s move to Real Madrid if they are drawn with Manchester United. Coach Jose Mourinho could also face his former clubs Inter Milan and Chelsea.
The draw for the group stage of UEFA Champions League 2010-11 will be conducted at 1600 hours (GMT) on Thursday, 26th August at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
The final of the competition will be played at the Wembley on 28th May 2011.
Complete four seeding pots are as below:
Pot 1: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Lyon
Pot 2: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, AS Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Marseille, Panathinaikos
Pot 3: Tottenham Hotspurs, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke, Basel, SC Braga, FC Copenhagen, Spartak Moscow
Pot 4: Hapoel Tel Aviv, FC Twente, Rubin Kazan, AJ Auxerre, CFR Cluj, Partizan Belgrade, MSK Zilina, Bursaspor
The draw for the group stage of the UEFA Europa League 2010-11 will also take place in Monaco at 1100 hours (GMT) on Friday, 27th August, which would feature 48 teams in total and could include the likes of Liverpool, Juventus, Manchester City, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen and Celtic.
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