UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw
Valencia, Bayern Leverkusen and Genk are Chelsea's opposition in the this year's UEFA Champions League Group stage.
The draw for UEFA Champions League 2011-12 has been made and this one sure seems to a tough 2011-12 UEFA Champions League campaign for all the teams and not just for Chelsea.
Chelsea who were in POT ONE have been drawn with Valencia (POT TWO), Bayern Leverkusen (POT THREE) and Genk (POT FOUR). The most notable threat will come from Juan Mata's ex-club Valencia who have always been one of the fierce competitors. Bayern Leverusen from Germany is also a tough opposition who have had a good season due to which they qualified for the Champions League. GENK are the only team who most of the people wont consider as much of an opposition but hey this is the Champions League and nothing comes easy.
Manchester United and Arsenal seem to be in a more comfortable group and the other English team Manchester City have been drawn in Group A with Bayern, Vilarreal and Napoli so even they have a tough group, not to forget this is their debut season.
Group A and Group D seem to be the toughest of all the groups but all in all a fantastic start for this years UEFA Champions League campaign, cant wait for the matches to start.
This years UEFA Champions League final will take place at Allianz Arena in in Germany on May 19 2012.
The group stage fixtures will be played on 13/14 September, 27/28 September, 18/19 October, 1/2 November, 22/23 November and 6/7 December. The section winners and runners-up will progress to the round of 16 in the spring. Teams finishing third in each section will transfer to the UEFA Europa League round of 32.
These are the Groups for this years Champions League Group stage -
Group A : Bayern Munich, Vilarreal, Manchester City and Napoli.
Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moskova, Lille and Trabzonspor
Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel and Otelul
Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb
Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Leverkusen, GENK
Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos and Dortmund
Group G: Porto, Shaktar, Zenit and APOEL
Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE and Plzen
This is how the UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw was made starting from POT 1 to POT 4
POT 1
POT 2
POT 3
POT 4