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After the end of the UEFA Champions League qualifying matches on Thursday, the draw for the prestigious tournament group stage took place in Monaco, dividing 32 clubs from 16 different countries into 8 groups of four.
According to the draw rules, no team can be placed in the same group as a club from their own country. However, defending champions "Liverpool" did not have this "protection" due to their unique right to participate in the league, which resulted in one of "Liverpool's" future opponents in Group G being English champions "Chelsea", as well as Belgian team "Anderlecht" and Spanish side "Betis".
In other exciting match-ups, we can expect the strongest German and Italian clubs "Bayern" and "Juventus" to be clear favorites in Group A against "Brugge" and "Rapid" to advance to the next stage. Lady Luck also smiled upon the "Arsenal" team, who will face less well-known opponents like "Sparta" and "Thun" along with "Ajax".
Group C is one of the most balanced - where the favorite is clearly "Barcelona", but all three other teams, namely "Panathinaikos", "Werder", and "Udinese", will fight for a spot in the knockout stages. Group D brings intrigue with one of last season's top European goal scorers, "Villarreal's" D. Forlan, returning to play against his former club "Man Utd", along with matches against "Lille" and "Benfica".
The 2004/05 season finalists "Milan" will once again face off against "PSV" in Group E, along with "Schalke" and "Fenerbahce" teams. In Group F, the titleholder "Real" will face long-time French champions "Lyon", as well as regular Champions League participants "Olympiacos" and "Rosenborg".
One of the tournament's surprises, Slovakian team "Artmedia", who have already eliminated "Celtic" in the qualifying rounds, will once again play in Glasgow against "Rangers". The other two teams in Group H, "Inter" and "Porto", have already met in the quarter-finals last year.
The first group stage matches will be played on September 13-14, with the last ones taking place on December 6-7.
