Friday, August 26, 2011

UEFA Champions League Preview

Today was the Draw for the Group Stage of UEFA Champions League for 2011/12 season, as 32 teams sat and waited for their fate during the season.  The world's biggest tournament outside of FIFA World Cup, as players get famous for leading their club teams to total victory in Europe. There were funny moments during the draw like being confuse on rather a team will be in Group D or B and the awkward English to Spanish translations; where the host were talking to the players on their seasons. There will be pressure from everyone to do well in this tournament. I will predict the finish of each team their respected group in the order last to first from A to H.
Last place in the group: SSC Napoli, Trabzonspor, FC Otelul Galati, Dinamo Zagreb, Genk, Olympiacos, APOEL, and Viktoria Plzen. Do not worry on trying to pronouncing or looking them up as they will be finish by the fifth game of Tournament. In fact, I will be shock if they finish with more than 5 points within their respected groups.
3rd Place in the Group: Villarreal, CSKA Moscow, FC Basel, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal, Zenit St. Petersburg, and BATE. The good news for these clubs is they will continue to play in a European tournament, the bad news is it the Europa League (the lower tournament next to the Champions League).
2nd Place in the Group: Bayern Munich, Lille, Benfica, Lyon, Valencia, Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar Donetsk and AC Milan. For some of these clubs they would win their group if they did not run into stronger clubs. Other clubs will finish 2nd place in their groups by default.
The Group Winners a.k.a The favorites to win the Champions League: Manchester City, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Marseille, Porto, and Barcelona. These clubs are for real; they want to win the thing. Their fans and owners expect them to win it; there is no way around it. Anything short of at least the Quarterfinals is absolute failure and the world knows it.
The Group that is hard to predict Group F with Olympiacos, Arsenal, Borsussia Dortmund, and Marseille. With Arsenal for some reason selling their best players like they in a bankruptcy sale, this group is in a tale spin in terms of easy bets.
The Group that is easy to predict Group A with Napoli, Villarreal, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City. In case you have not notice about Manchester City is they are juggernauts, they brought the best talent money can buy. In two English Premier League matches, they have seven goals are already and nothing seems to stop them. I do not see any of these clubs trying to stop, in fact the only ones that can stop them is themselves.
The Most Entertaining Group: Group E with Genk, Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia and Chelsea. This group is very different from main stays like Chelsea and Valencia to underdogs like Genk each club has their own style and will be very entertaining at least. And let the good times role.
WINNER: Chelsea! Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich slowly stopping to care about domestic affairs all the focus is on winning Europe's biggest club prize. Failure is not an option with this club and they will win at all cost.
I do not know about you, but I cannot wait for the group stage matches to start in three weeks time.     

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