WHILE Celtic and their supporters might have spent yesterday dreaming of what might have been, there was a healty dose of reality for Manchester City as the club's Champions League curse returned to haunt them after they were drawn with last season's finalists Juventus and Europa League winners Seville for the group stage of the competition.
As Malmo were being placed alongside heavyweights Real Madrid and Paris St-Germain, City, who have suffered tough draws in the last four seasons of the Champions League, were selected in Group D - with the other team being Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach.
Arsenal also face a tough task in Group F against Bayern Munich, who have eliminated the Gunners from the competition in two out of the last three seasons - but have more straightforward opposition from Greek side Olympiakos - who are in the middle of a match-fixing scandal - and Dinamo Zagreb from Croatia.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho will have a return to a former side Porto, whom he took to Champions League glory in 2004, and his side should have little trouble in Group G with Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Manchester United's return to the competition after last year's absence should also not trouble manager Louis van Gaal too much, with the opponents in Group B being PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow and German side Wolfsburg.
Manchester City's head of football administration Brian Marwood admitted the club seemed to experience bad luck in Champions League draws.
He said: "It's the best 32 clubs in Europe so you have to expect there will be some tough games in there and we do always seem to draw very difficult groups, but it is what it is, we have to deal with it and we'll hopefully progress.
"I'm sure they are looking at us and seeing the talent we have in our squad, and you'd like to think they are not happy about drawing us."
Marwood refused to state what the club regarded as a minimum target for manager Manuel Pellegrini however.
He added: "We have our internal targets and they will be kept internal, but of course we are very ambitious; we want to get as close to winning it as we possibly can, of course we do. We're in it to compete, not just to get through the group stage; it has to be more than that."
Arsenal's group has a familiar look to it for the Gunners. As well as the Bayern connection Arsenal and Olympiakos have now been drawn together in the group stage for the fourth time in seven seasons.
David Miles, Arsenal club secretary, admitted to feeling a chill when the Gunners were put into Bayern Munich's group.
He said: "The draw started ominously when we were picked in Bayern's group but overall I think we can we relatively pleased with how it turned out.
"Bayern have knocked us out twice so it is about time we returned the favour - let's hope so anyway."
This time however there have been questions marks over the Greek side's participation - UEFA only confirmed Olympiakos' participation on Monday after sport's highest court rejected an appeal by Greek rivals Panathinaikos.
Panathinaikos had challenged a UEFA appeals body decision in June to admit Olympiakos, whose owner Vangelis Marinakis was banned from football in June by a Greek magistrate. He was released on bail as investigations continue into allegations that a criminal organisation is controlling the domestic game - but he was present at CL draw in Monaco. Marinakis refused to comment when asked about the allegations.
UEFA says neither the Greek FA "nor the criminal courts in Athens have rendered any final decision against Mr Marinakis or the club."
Carlo Cudicini, global ambassador for Chelsea, insisted that the Stamford Bridge club did not have an easy draw.
He said: "Porto is a club that Jose knows very well of course, and they are a club that does very well in the transfer market - they sell a lot of players but keep replacing them with other good players and stay in the Champions League every year.
"This not an easy draw at all - I don't think going to Tel Aviv and Kiev are easy trips. Maccabi are champions of Israel with a manager (Slavisa Jokanovic) who is an ex-Chelsea and knows English football very well."
Manchester United's draw will see Memphis Depay return to the club that he starred for last season. The Dutch winger said on Twitter: "Well, well PSV - guess we'll see each other soon."
The holders Barcelona are in an easy-looking Group E along with Bayer Leverkusen, Roma and BATE Borisov from Belarus.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel