UEFA Champions League: the draw is out

The draw for the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League group stage was held today at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, Monaco. And all the participating clubs aim to reach the final to be played on May 28, 2011 at London's Wembley Stadium. In the draw were 32 clubs from across the continent, who were then divided into eight groups of four teams each, for Europe's premier club competition. And once more we have some very interesting groups to look forward to. And lets see if the favourites can make it to London to the finals.

In Group A we have the defending champions Inter Milan taking on Germany's Werder Bremen, new boys Tottenham Hotspurs from the English Premier League and the Dutch champions Twente Enschede. Inter surely are the favourites in this group, but otherwise it looks very even with chances for the three other sides.

And once more we have a potential Group of Death. This time around it will be Group G where Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid will have to face Italian giants AC Milan, Dutch heavyweights Ajax Amsterdam and talented French side AJ Auxerre.

Meanwhile finalists FC Bayern Munich from Germany have been drawn into Group D and will face Italy's AS Roma, Swiss giants FC Basel and CFR Cluj from Romania. A doable group for the German champions or as they would say in German "Bayern dusel" meaning Bayern's luck with draws.


The Groups

Group A: FC Internationale Milan (Italy), SV Werder Bremen (Germany), Tottenham Hotspurs FC (England), FC Twente Enschede (Netherlands)

Group B: Olympique Lyonnais (France), Benfica Lisboa (Portugal), FC Schalke 04 (Germany), FC Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel)

Group C: Manchester United (England), FC Valencia (Spain), Glasgow Rangers FC (Scotland), Bursaspor (Turkey)

Group D: FC Barcelona (Spain), Panathinaikos Athens (Greece), FC Copenhagen (Denmark), FC Rubin Kazan (Russia)

Group E: FC Bayern Munich (Germany), AS Roma (Italy), FC Basel (Switzerland), CFR Cluj (Romania)

Group F: FC Chelsea London (England), Olympique Marseille (France), Spartak Moscow (Russia), MSK Zilina (Slovakia)

Group G: AC Milan (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands), AJ Auxerre (France)

Group H: FC Arsenal London (England), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), SC Braga (Portugal), FK Partisan Belgrade (Serbia)