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!“
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