The draw for the Group Stage of the UEFA Champions League 2008-09 took place in Monaco today, at 18:00 CET. (I LIVEBLOGGED the event over at Soccerlens by the way, for anyone interested)
Inter Milan got the best draw of the lot, Juventus and Roma will be facing tough opponents such as Real Madrid and Chelsea (respectively), while the one having it toughest is without a doubt Fiorentina (with Lyon, Bayern Munich, and Steaua Bucharest).
I’ll make a more elaborate analysis later on, but for now here are the draw results.
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Group A . Group B . | |||
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Group C . Group D . | |||
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Group E . Group F . | |||
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Group G . Group H . | |||
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Tags: AS Roma, Draw, Fiorentina, Inter Milan, Juventus, UEFA Champions League
Posted in Fiorentina, Inter, Juventus, Roma, UEFA Champions League |
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Good game, Real and Juventus. Plus FC Zenit. Woots.
Nice Bayern draw. Although, I wish it wasn’t Fiorentina from pot 4. Still, if we can’t go through in that group I don’t know what to say.
Liverpool need to improve their poor game that they played last night but we should go through.
CHELSEA’S FRANK LAMPARD DID NOT DESERVE THE BEST MIDFIELDER AWARD
Porto will be tricky for us, they have a large bulk good players still at the club like Quaresma, Fenerbahce will be tough one after seeing how they nearly KO Chelsea at some point of last years UCL.
Toni to visit his old club, Fiorentina
United face a banana peel here in the form of Villareal, as the last time they face them, The Red Devils did not make it past the group stage.
[...] By Ives agrees that Group D is the toughest mCalcio.com has some initial thoughts on the draw and will provide in depth analysis [...]
Every group apart from group F has a clear two clubs who are superior. This draw fixing is doing my head in, they paired us with Athletico to make good TV and give us on of the easiest teams in pot B to make sure we still progress.
Hello guys, can anybody explain why Fiorentina had only 2 groups that they could be drawn onto. If you look closely, there’s 3 groups which already have Italian clubs ( Inter, Juventus, Roma) and Aalborg was picked first from pot # 4, so that leaves 4 available groups that Fiorentina could have been in. The reason why I’m asking its because I didn’t want Fiorentina to be drawn onto the same Group as Steaua since Mutu is Romanian ( duh) and him playing vs a Romanian club is just useless tension. If you have any idea please let me know at levisg@gmail.com
I don’t fully understand your question Levis. Yes, by the time Fiorentina were drawn there were only 2 groups they could have been put in, but that’s part of the luck of the draw.
Or rather, it’s due to the fact Fiorentina were seeded so low and thus placed into pot 4. As you saw, there are many disadvantages to that… Given they qualified for the UCL this year, I’m sure if the Viola repeat their performance next year they will be seeded much higher.
Ans yeah, a Mutu-Steaua “derby” should provide plenty of excitement.
Thx Marco for the reply. I guess my main question is why did Fiorentina have only 2 groups they could have been put in INSTEAD OF 4 by my calculations. You see Aalborg was picked first given them 8 possible groups , Fiorentina were picked second thus 7 possible groups MINUS 3 groups which have allready Italian clubs which leaves 4 remaining groups available with no restrictions.
Let me know. Ciao.
Well, your calculations seem correct Levis… but who said that when they were drawn, Fiorentina could only have been placed in 2 groups instead of 4?
Did the announcer on the UEFA Livecast say that? Because if he did, I missed it…
It seems like everyone missed it except me
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Yes even the announcer said theres only 2 possible groups available. The complete video was on youtube but they have removed it. Its a shame that we probably wont get any proper explanation as to why Fiorentina had only 2 possible groups instead of 4.
Well did you consider the possibility the announcer might have made a mistake? Maybe he looked at the table wrong…
Who was it that said the “two-group” thing? The guy doing the draw (i.e. the one you saw picking up balls from the pots) or the guy just doing the commentary?
To be honest, I really don’t see what else it could be…
Trust me Marco there is no mistake. Ronaldo picked the ball and gave it to the announcer who then showed it to the TV viewers. And then the third person shuffled the 2 balls in the pot and pulled 1 ball out which was Fiorentina, and you could clearly see only 1 ball remaining in the pot. Like I said this will remain an unsolved mystery.