with the CL draw almost upon us

[Pigeonho]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Last I heard they aren't doing that great.

 

[Joburg Hero]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Last I heard they aren't doing that great.

By that logic, neither are we lol.

 

[mancitymick]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Hope so. Direct train is cheap for me :)

 

[squirtyflower]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Hope so. Direct train is cheap for me :)

self self self self self

 

[Pigeonho]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Last I heard they aren't doing that great.

By that logic, neither are we lol.

Just had a look. P3 W1 D2. Not as bad as phillipe auclair was making out.

 

[mancitymick]

Even money we get PSG.

You know we will

Hope so. Direct train is cheap for me :)

self self self self self

Ha. You know you are more than welcome to stay at mine before/after pal

 

[Bill]

I am fucking buzzing. Don't care who we draw or where we go I'm fucking having it. Waited so long for these days and the novelty will never wear off.

cant wait.

Wow Bill and to think you had lost your Mojo a few weeks ago!

Still Dont get the football in this country mate. The cl is just as corrupt but the away days are just sooooo good :-)

 

[mike channon´s windmill]

The key is the split of the draw into two halves. So City/rags, Chelsea/Arse, Bayern/Dortmund/, Real/Barca and Porto/Benfica will all be in separate halves of the draw so their nearest domestic rivals don't have clashing TV dates. Based on the above likely seedings this means that one of City's pot 1 teams will be Chelsea or Arsenal. So that leaves City with either Bayern, Barca/Real or Porto/Benfica as their pot 1 team. If City draw Bayern or are in pot 3 we won't get Dortmund. If we draw Barca or Real we won't get Atletico Madrid. Any draw except AC Milan or Juventus from pot 2 can give us Napoli from pot 4. The one to avoid is PSG from pot 2 which City or any pot 1 team in the same half of the draw could get.

Don't forget it was this split halves of the draw that stitched us up last year. We got Dortmund as our pot 4 team simply because Bayern were in the other half of the draw and left Chelsea and the rags (who were in Bayern's half) with Norsdsjaelland and Cluj respectively. As far as Dortmund were concerned there was simply no other group left that they could be drawn in.

I don't hold with the "I don't care who we get. Bring 'em on" school of thought. That's what we got the last two seasons. I'd much prefer a winnable group than another group of death.

I'd happily settle for Porto, Olympiacos and Viktoria Plzen/Maribor. I'd hate to see us get the likes of Barca, PSG and Napoli.

I think because of Porto and Benfica both being in Pot 1 this year that Bayern have to be in our half of the draw so therefore we can't get Dortmund regardless of what happens.

We should go on the assumption that AC Milan will go through. This will mean that for arguments sake we go into the Blue half of the draw(colours are irrelevant really), our Pot 1 candidates would be Real/Barca, Bayern, Porto/Benfica.

Let's say Red is Groups A-D, and blue is E-F.

The 4 red would be Barca/Real, United, Arsenal/Chelsea, Benfica/Porto.
The 4 blue would be Barca/Real, Bayern, Arsenal/Chelsea, Benfica/Porto.

It's really neither here nor there for the Portuguese teams, but I have an inkling on Barca so reckon they'd be in our half of the draw. I also think Chelsea will be in our half as they are a stronger draw and I don't think TV would want United & Chelsea on the same night. So I'd go for:

Red A: Real, B: United, C: Porto, D: Arsenal.
Blue E: Barcelona, F: Chelsea, G: Bayern, H: Benfica.

If you go into Pot 2 by AC getting through they would have to be seperate from Juventus. PSG would have to be seperate from Marseille and CSKA Moskva would go into the opposite group from Zenit. I think Sociedad are knocking out Lyon so Juventus would be in Pot 2, Zenit in Pot 3.

Thus you have to look at the most marketable Pot 2 teams. PSG and Juventus are strong, as are Shakhtar. Marseille are Pot 1 fodder as are CSKA Moskva, Atletico I reckon would go into a different half from Real out of principle, Schalke would go in Bayern's half imo.

So you sum that up:

Red: Marseille, Juventus, CSKA Moskva, Shakhtar.
Blue: PSG, AC Milan, Atletico, Schalke.

So drawing logically from that you get:

Red A: Real Madrid, CSKA Moskva
B: United, Marseille,
C: Porto, Juventus,
D: Arsenal, Shakhtar,

Blue
E: Barcelona, AC Milan,
F: Chelsea, Schalke,
G: Bayern, Atletico
H: Benfica, PSG,

Onto Pot 3 and by virtue of CSKA Moskva being Red Zenit would be in the blue half. As United are Red we would be blue and Dortmund would be red as Bayern are blue. I believe if Sociedad knock out Lyon then Leverkusen go into 3 which would mean they go into red with Dortmund.

Red: Dortmund, Olympiakos, Ajax, Leverkusen.
Blue: Zenit, Man City, Galatasaray, Basel.

Red A: Real Madrid, CSKA Moskva, Olympiakos,
B: United, Marseille, Dortmund,
C: Porto, Juventus, Leverkusen,
D: Arsenal, Shakhtar, Ajax

Blue
E: Barcelona, AC Milan, Man City,
F: Chelsea, Schalke, Zenit,
G: Bayern, Atletico, Basel,
H: Benfica, PSG, Galatasaray,

Onto D and I think the only seeding would be Sociedad in Red as Atletico are blue, the rest would be unseeded.

Red: Real Sociedad, Napoli, Austria Wien, Steaua.
Blue: Shakhter Karagandy, Viktoria Plzen, FC Kobenhavn, Anderlecht.

Red A: Real Madrid, CSKA Moskva, Olympiakos, Napoli.
B: United, Marseille, Dortmund, Austria Wien.
C: Porto, Juventus, Leverkusen, Steaua.
D: Arsenal, Shakhtar, Ajax, Real Sociedad.

Blue
E: Barcelona, AC Milan, Man City, Anderlecht.
F: Chelsea, Schalke, Zenit, FC Kobenhavn.
G: Bayern, Atletico, Basel, Viktoria Plzen.
H: Benfica, PSG, Galatasaray, Shakhter Karagandy.

I know that's mostly guesswork but working on the basis that UEFA will want its big money makers through then Real and Napoli should go through in A if they see off CSKA, United would have Dortmund but should see off Marseille, Juventus, Porto and Leverkusen would fight for Last 16 berths(UEFA won't mind too much who goes through), Arsenal & Shakhtar should dispose of Ajax and Sociedad. In our half it would be a battle between us and AC for 2nd, Chelsea would go through with a decent team, Bayern & Atletico would expect to go through and PSG would go through with either Benfica or Galatasaray. I think although it won't be exactly like that I think with the permutations it could end up quite similar to that.

And people say it isn´t bent - excellent work my friend. When this pops out tomorrow I will post this directly to UEFA website and ask them why they wasted a fookin fortune putting this scam of a draw together in the first place

 

[squirtyflower]

Hope so. Direct train is cheap for me :)

self self self self self

Ha. You know you are more than welcome to stay at mine before/after pal

might be cheaper to fly to yours and then go from there!

 

[andrewmswift]

Barca
Milan
City
Not sure who our 4th team will be. We should qualify from this group and maybe win it.

If we get a big team (Barca, Bayern, Madrid) from pot 1 and either PSG from 2 or Napoli from 4, UEFA want us out again. Will be a tough task but we have to qualify, then anything is possible.