Champions League 2011 Groups Drawn
The draw for UEFA Champions League 2011 group stages was held at Monaco on Thursday. Thirty two teams were involved in the draw which included eleven previous winners of the competition. Champions League draw seeds:
- Pot one: Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Porto, Inter Milan
- Pot two: Shakhtar Donetsk, Lyon, Villarreal, AC Milan, Valencia, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, Benfica
- Pot three: Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester City, Olympiakos, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Basle, Lille, BATE
- Pot four: Napoli, Genk, Borussia Dortmund, Trabzonspor, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL, Otelul Galati, Viktoria Pizen
The draw started from Pot one and went till Pot four, as the legends of the game unveiled the teams from the pot one by one. The likes of Luis Figo, Sir Bobby Charlton, Ruud Gullit and Lothar Matthaus were present during the draw. The groups which were formed from the draw are:
Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City, Napoli
Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor
Group C: Manchester United, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati
Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb
Group E: Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk
Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund
Group G: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit St Petersburg, APOEL
Group H: Barcelona, Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen
Group A is undoubtedly the group of death whereas Manchester United and Porto have the easiest group. Group H is also easy for Barcelona despite the presence of Milan there. Group E and Group F are a bit tricky to call.
Not only this, the ceremony was concluded with the introduction of a new award which is the UEFA’s Best Player in Europe Award. This award was given on the basis of votes from a panel of 53 journalists, all around the continent, present at the arena. Xavi, Lio Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were nominated but Messi got the award.
Tags: AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Champions League, Champions League 2011, Chelsea, Football, Lionel Messi, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League
