The draw for the financially lucrative Champions League group stages was made this afternoon in Monaco despite trouble with the balls containing the team names and group letters - sack the man who closed them so tightly!!!
FINAL DRAW -
A - Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
B - Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, FC Kobenhavn
C - Benfica, Paris St Germain, Olympiakos, Anderlecht
D - Bayern Munich, CSKA Moskva, Manchester City, Viktoria Plzen
E - Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
F - Arsenal, Olympique Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
G - Porto, Atletico de Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria Wien
H - Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Celtic
Arsenal appear to be in the group of death sharing a group with last year's finalists, Borussia Dortmund, former champions and French Ligue 1 front-runners, Marseille and rising Italian club, Napoli with former Liverpool and Chelsea manager, Rafa Benitez. Finally, a tough group for the Gunners.
As usual, Manchester United and Chelsea end up with a piss weak group each, while Manchester City can breathe a sigh of relief with a much easier group this time round - only Bayern Munich to worry about although they'll hope their trip to Moscow is earlier rather than later.
Celtic's chances of repeating their efforts to make the 2nd round have been made difficult being drawn in the same group as three other former champions, Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax Amsterdam. It will require a bit more Bhoys magic to get them through against two of this lot.
Paris St-Germain and Benfica would be disappointed not to go through from their group too.
Match-ups to watch early on -
Juventus v Real Madrid
Barcelona v AC Milan
Bayern Munich v Manchester City
Atletico Madrid v Porto
Every game in group F
Every game featuring Celtic
Your tips to go through? Mine - Manchester United, Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, Juventus, PSG, Benfica, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Chelsea, Schalke, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Milan
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