United draw Celtic in Champions League
Thursday, 28 Aug 2008 21:20
Manchester United and Liverpool both have tricky groups
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Holders Manchester United have been drawn against Scottish champions Celtic in the group stages of this season's Champions League.
The English champions face their counterparts from north of the border in what is a potential banana-skin group featuring Spanish side Villarreal and Danish club Aalborg.
Liverpool have been handed arguably the most difficult draw of any of the Premier League sides, who have otherwise largely avoided the most dangerous opponents.
The Reds face a rematch against Olympique Marseille, the side who almost succeeded in knocking out the 2005 champions at the group stage last season, in a group also featuring Dutch club PSV Eindhoven and Spanish side Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea have what looks to be a relatively straightforward path to the knockout stages of the competition after being drawn alongside Serie A club AS Roma, French side Bordeaux and Romanian champions CFR Cluj.
And Arsenal's draw is also favourable, with 2004 winners FC Porto providing the strongest opposition in a group alongside Fenerbahce of Turkey and Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev.
The obligatory group of death is possibly group H, featuring Spanish champions Real Madrid, Italian giants Juventus and Uefa Cup holders Zenit St Petersburg of Russia.
Belarusian side BATE Borisov are the fourth club in what is a near impossible task for them in their first ever Champions League outing.
Champions League draw in full:
Group A
Chelsea
AS Roma
Bordeaux
CFR Cluj
Group B
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Panathinaikos
Anorthosis Famagusta
Group C
Barcelona
Sporting
FC Basel
Shakhtar Donetsk
Group D
Liverpool
PSV Eindhoven
Olympique Marseille
Atletico Madrid
Group E
Manchester United
Villarreal
Celtic
Aalborg
Group F
Lyon
Bayern Munich
Steaua Bucharest
Fiorentina
Group G
Arsenal
FC Porto
Fenerbahce
Dynamo Kiev
Group H
Real Madrid
Juventus
Zenit St Petersburg
BATE Borisov