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Time for Mourinho to BitchThe Champions League draw is out and it's another laugher for Chelsea! Unlike The Arsenal, ManUre, and Liverpool , who are in the VIP pot, poor, woe is Blues are in the second tier. As such, they can't be drawn in the same group as a team from their own league, which made the odds against them facing Barcelona again 4-1. And wouldn't ya know, it happened again - for the third straight year. The two clubs, who meet in the Group of Death (A), first squared off two years ago and in the first leg, Mourinho accused Frank Rijkaard of visiting referee Anders Frisk's dressing room at halftime. The accusation was never proven and Mourinho served a touchline ban. The penalty notwithstanding, the Blues defeated Barca over two legs. Things reached a fever pitch last year after Lionel Messi faked out the ref after a challenge by Asier del Horno that resulted in the Spaniard being sent off. Playing with 10 men, Chelsea were no match for the Catalan giants and got smoked. Barca went on to win the Champions, defeated The Arsenal in the final. Werder Bremen and Levski Sofia are also in the group... could be tough times for the Bank of Chelsea. If you listen closely, you can actually hear Jose Mourinho's high-pitched, lispy whining about conspiracy from across the pond... he's such a fucking vagina. Anyway, ManUre and Celtic FC, both former winners, will meet for the first time in UEFA club competition in Group F, while Liverpool will see PSV Eindhoven and Bordeaux in Group C. Though Liverpool and Eindhoven are the favorites, Galatasary away could be a sticky issue. Since this isn't the FA or EPL, I'll be full of support for United and Liverpool and wish best of luck to both... hopefully, United won't flame out to some chumps before the knockout rounds this year and make English football look like shite. As for The Arsenal, we join FC Porto, CSKA Mosco, and Hamburg in Group G in what could be a pretty tricky draw. We are the class of the group but there is no whipping boy to be found here. Porto is a dangerous but not the side they were under Mourinho. CSKA Moscow recently won the UEFA Cup and are generally a tough trip for the lads. But we're playing them in November and will avoid the Russian winter. Hamburg shouldn't be underestimated, as they fielded the toughest defense in the Bundesliga last year and finished 2nd to Bayern Munich. But the loss of Boulahrouz to Chelski and Van Buyten to Bayern is a pretty painful blow that they won't overcome. Their only strikers are Van der Vaart and Kompany, and frankly, that's not too scary. All in all, I'm happy about our draw. It's not the easiest, by any means, but it's the most favorable of the English sides and if we show up and play to form, we'll be fine. The only way it could have been better if we'd landed in Group H instead of cheating AC Milan... Aston Villa could have emerged from that group unscathed. What a joke. Group A: Barcelona, Chelsea, Werder Bremen, Levski Sofia Group B: Internazionale, Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon, Spartak Moscow Group C: Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux, Galatasaray Group D: Valencia, Roma, Olympiakos, Shakhtar Donetsk Group E: Real Madrid, Lyon, Steaua Bucharest, Dynamo Kiev Group F: Manchester United, Celtic, Benfica, FC Copenhagen Group G: Arsenal, Porto, CSKA Moscow, FC Hamburg Group H: AC Milan, Lille, AEK Athens, Anderlecht *I've been notified that commenting on this post is broken due to some random error. It will be fixed shortly. Thanks ** Problem fixed!  Posted at August 25, 2006 7:30 AM Permalink • Filed under: Arsenal FC , Football (Soccer) |
Comments (9): Time for Mourinho to Bitch
Cullen Barker
August 25, 2006 3:20 PM
I can appreciate the cautious optimism here, as who knows what can happen when the "wrong" Arsenal shows up to play. But I think we came away with one of the easier draws of the tournament. A loss against any of the three would be disappointing.
William
August 25, 2006 4:39 PM
What are you so bloody worried about? 3 months ago, you lost in the final of the Champions! And now the draw is tricky? Your lads should sail through!!
Britton Jagger
August 26, 2006 1:23 AM
It looks like I'm about to become a Werder Bremen fan :) What a wretched draw those cunts received! It's beautiful!
WP
August 26, 2006 2:12 AM
I am waiting for Chelski to qualify in second place to Barca only to be drawn against Liverpool in the next round and get knocked out. At which point Moaninho will claim its not fair, the seedings were wrong and no team can win from Pool 2, except of course Liverpool who won from Pool 2.
Coren Lupen
August 27, 2006 12:32 PM
With AC Milan's recent past, maybe FIFA needs to investigate how they got the weakest draw in the history of the Cup. I'm no fan of Chelsea or United but while they sit in groups with Barca, Werder, and Chelsea while cheaters get a bloody pass is an absolute shame.
Silver
August 27, 2006 2:02 PM
How do they do the draw? Are there seeds that go into brackets and everyone else just fills in kinda like the NCAA brackets? I have no idea how this works.
Nathan Arrington
August 27, 2006 7:29 PM
Where is Galatasary? And why do England and Spain get more teams than some of the other countries?
Toxic
August 28, 2006 9:12 AM
Galatasaray is a shitehole in Istanbul Turkey - where other countries fans tend to come home in a pine box from and yet they are never thrown out of competitions.
Shiloh
August 28, 2006 1:49 PM
Nathan: Certain countries get more slots than others because of their ranking on the UEFA coefficients table. The maximum number of teams that can be sent by an association is 4 but if a title holder comes from a league given four positions but finishes out of the top four, it will take the place of the fourth placed team. The fourth placed team will go to the UEFA Cup. This happened last year with Liverpool and Everton.
A league's ranking (or co-efficient) is determined by the results of the clubs of the leagues over the past five seasons. The number of points awarded each season is divided by the number of teams that participated for that nation in that season.
The resulting rankings determine the allotments for each football association. They are currently:
Ranking 1-3: Spain, Italy, and England - 4
Ranking 4-6: France, Germany, and Portugal - 3
Ranking 7-15: Netherlands, Greece, Russia, Romania, Scotland, Belgium, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Turkey - 2
Ranking 16-below: Rest of Europe - 1