UEFA Champions League Draw: A Roundup

So there we have it. For the UEFA Champions League 2011-12, FC Barcelona have been placed in Group H, a group of champions which also includes AC Milan, BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen. In other news, Lionel Messi has won the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe award.


The Pots

The draw began with the 32 teams placed in 4 pots based on thier UEFA performance coefficients which are a measure of the team’s performance in the Champions League in the past 5 years as well as the strength of their leagues. Consequently, Pot 1 and Pot 2 were the strongest and the ones which the other teams would look to avoid. Following are the 4 pots:

POT 1:

Barcelona, Man Utd, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Porto, Inter Milan

POT 2:

AC Milan, Lyon, Shakhtar Donetsk, Valencia, Benfica, Villareal, CSKA Moscow, Marseille

POT 3:

Zenit St. Petersburg, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiacos, Man City, Lille, Basel, BATE Borisov

POT 4:

BvB Dortmund, Napoli, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL FC, Tanzonspor, Genk, Plzen, Otelul Galati

The Groups

Each team from Pot 1 was put into a group from A to H. Barcelona was allotted Group H. Now, a team from Pot 1 would draw 1 team from Pot 2. Consequently, FC Barcelona was drawn up against Italian champions AC Milan. After teams from Pot 2 were exhausted, Pot 3 came up. From Pot 3, Belarus champions BATE Borisov were put into Group H. Teams from Pot 4 were drawn up the last. Pot 4 contained strong opponents like Borussia Dortmund and Napoli who are yet inexperienced in Champions League football. However, Barcelona managed to avoid them and drew Czech champions Viktoria Plzen.

Consequently, Group H has:

FC Barcelona: Spanish champions

AC Milan: Italian champions

BATE Borisov: Belarusian champions

Viktoria Plzen: Czech champions

The other groups have been drawn as follows:

Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli

Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor (replaced Fenerbahce who are facing a match-fixing allegation)

Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, FC Basel, Otelul Galati

Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, KRC Genk

Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Dortmund

Group G: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL Nicosia

The groups to watch out for other than Group H are:

Group A: This is in my opinion the ‘Group of Death’. Four strong teams – Munich (who host the finals), Villarreal (out to prove themselves), Man City and Napoli (strong performances in domestic league and a long awaited appearance in the CL) will slug it out for the 2 berths.

Group F: This is an interesting group with BVB Dortmund – one of the teams to watch out for this season and strong contenders Arsenal and Marseille.

Group H

Getting back to Barcelona’s group, we face quite a challenge ourselves. Let us consider them one by one.

AC Milan (Home: San Siro; Manager: Massimiliano Allegri) have played well against Spanish opponents in the recent past and will be a tough test, especially at San Siro. In the last season, AC Milan wont their 18th Serie A title. In the CL, they were knocked out by Tottenham in the Round of 16. In the Coppa Italia, they made it to the semi finals but were eliminated by Palermo. Zlatan Ibrahimovich was their overall top scorer (21 goals) and Thiago Silva was their best defender.

BATE Borisov (Home: Dynamo Minsk Stadium; Manager: Viktor Goncharenko) won their 7th Belarusian Premier League title last season. They lost out to PSG in the Europa League Round of 32 after coming 2nd in their group.

Viktoria Plzen (Home:Struncovy Sady Stadion; Manager: Pavel Vrba) won the Czech league for the first time last season. They also won the Czech Republic Supercup in 2011.

The Schedule

Tuesday 13 September: AC Milan (H)

Wednesday 28 September: BATE (A)

Wednesday 19 October: Plzen (A)

Tuesday 1 November Plzen (H)

Wednesday 23 November: AC Milan (A)

Tuesday 6 December: BATE (H)
And thus begins FC Barcelona’s quest to be the first team to defend the UEFA Champions League. We face a tough group with less known teams who could always spring a surprise. However, if we can hold true to El Capitan Puyol’s words at the Gamper ceremony: “If we stay united, we will continue to make history“, we should be fine!

Let us conclude with Guardiola’s thoughts for the upcoming season: “We promise you that we will keep up the hard work to win everything again. I will be in charge of seeing to it that every time you come here (to the Camp Nou), you will see us working hard. All of the titles we have won in the last season and in the seasons before that – all of this has been possible because of you. Visca el Barça! Visca Catalunya! and heres to a great season!“

Gerard Pique: Alexis Sanchez's arrival at Barcelona will help give Lionel Messi some breathing space

The Chile international attacker is seen as a player who can help relieve some of the pressure on the Argentine ace at Camp Nou in the 60-game seasons to come


Barcelona defender Gerard Pique believes the recent arrival of Alexis Sanchez will help lighten the load on Balon d'Or winner Lionel Messi.

Sanchez, 22, arrived from Italian club Udinese during the summer transfer window in a deal that could total €37.5 million, and Pique believes the Chilean can be the key to helping ease the pressure on Messi's game.

"Sanchez could be useful to help open spaces on the pitch and he will help to give Messi some breathing space," Pique told ESPN, as reported by Sport.

"People always mark Messi, and having such a great player like Sanchez will mean the opposition will have to mark him too. This will leave Messi with more space.

"I think Alexis will bring plenty to Barcelona. We have Messi and Pedro, but Alexis is distinctive. He is fast, is good one-on-one and he also helps to defend."

Barcelona take on Guadalajara and Club America later this week in club friendlies ahead of the Supercopa double-header against Real Madrid.

Guardiola confirms that Xavi & Piqué will play on Wedsesday

FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Gerard Pique and Xavi Hernández, both of whom have been training individually recently, “will play some minutes” on Wednesday against Chivas de Guadalajara.

In the case of Xavi Hernández, this will be the first match he will play in this preseason, after spending the first weeks of preseason training working individually due to trouble with his soleus muscle (calf). Piqué, who played some minutes in the game against Bayern, will return to a position that, due to injuries and absences, has been short of players during this preseason.

Besides recovering Xavi and Piqué, Guardiola will also gain Adriano, joining the tour after his holidays. The remainder of the players that participated in the Copa America (Alves, Messi, Milito and Mascherano) will be added to the group on the 8th of August in Barcelona. On the possibility that these players will be ready to play the Spanish Super Cup games (August 14 and 17), Guardiola has not ruled it out though he didn’t guarantee that they participate either: “We’ll see how they do once they arrive. In terms of players available, I’ll decide who I will call the day before the game.”

Gerard Deulofeu and Sergi Gómez, who finished the U-19 European Championship on Monday (emerging as winners after a 2-3 win over the Czech Republic in extra time), will also be added to the team in Miami “to give rest to the people already here who have already played many minutes. They will be incorporated because of injuries and because I don’t have too many spare players. Besides, they come in good physical shape,” he added. The coach from Santpedor stated that he was “very satisfied” with the team’s preseason, because “we have competed very well, especially in the last match.”

Guardiola, who also confirmed that Jeffren will travel to Lisbon to close an agreement with Sporting de Portugal, said that he trusts the players he has available to confront the coming season and he has not wished to talk about possible signings: “It would be in bad taste for me to complain about the squad, with the players that I have.” And he has had complimentary words for Alexis Sánchez: “His joining us [will be] very good. He can occupy the 3 positions of attack, he is direct, intense and has ability in the 1 against 1. His [addition to the squad] will work well in all these facets.”

Villa: “At Barça, there will always be competition”

The arrival of Alexis expands the competition in the forward positions. But David Villa, who appeared with Guardiola at the press conference in Miami, was confident of the possibilities: “In a team as large as this, I will always have competition. Last year, this year, and the ones to come. This is the best team in the world.” The Asturian forward, who has been very pleased to be able to participate in the team’s preseason from the first day, believes that he has already adapted to the Barça style of play. “To play this way is not easy. Many teams try to play in the same style of Barça and few obtain it,” he stated.

Jeffren given permission to go to Portugal

Jeffren Suárez will leave Barça’s US Tour today to travel to Barcelona where he will negotiate his transfer to Sporting CP.


During his press conference in Miami, Pep Guardiola confirmed that the young forward had been given leave to leave the Tour and travel to Lisbon to negotiate with Sporting CP.

SOURCE ; www.fcbarcelona.cat