Chelsea join Europe's elite
Jose Mourinho will be pleased to see Chelsea listed among Europe's elite clubs
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Thursday, 21, Jun 2007 12:14
Chelsea have been named as one of the top eight seeds for next season's Champions League for the first time in their history.
Jose Mourinho's Blues will join all three of the other English clubs in the top eight – the only nation to have all of its representatives in the top pool.
Holders AC Milan are the number one seeds and are joined by city rivals Inter Milan, who won the Serie A title last season and reached the last 16 of the Champions League before being knocked out by Valencia.
La Liga champions Real Madrid and 2006 winners Barcelona are the other two teams in the top eight.
Liverpool's co-efficient – a rating given by Uefa based on the side's previous performances in European competition – is the highest of all four English clubs after Rafael Benitez led the side to victory in 2005 and another final appearance last season.
Arsenal, who like Liverpool will have to play in the third qualifying round before the group stages are drawn, are rated below only Milan, Barcelona, Liverpool and Inter in the rankings with Real Madrid holding the sixth-best co-efficient.
Manchester United, champions under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1999, and Chelsea are rated equal-seventh.
The second pot includes French champions Lyon, the Portuguese league winners Porto and the champions of the Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven, along with last year's beaten quarter-finalists Valencia and Roma and Uefa Cup winners Sevilla.
Scottish Premier League champions Celtic are included among the third seeds, while runners-up Rangers will be in the fourth pot, assuming they successfully navigate the qualifying stage.
Full list of seedings, based on Uefa co-efficient:
Top Seeds
1 Milan; 2 Barcelona; 3 Liverpool; 4 Inter Milan; 5 Arsenal; 6 Real Madrid; 7= Chelsea, Manchester United.
Second Seeds
9 Valencia; 10 Lyon; 11 Porto; 12 Sevilla; 13 PSV Eindhoven; 14 Roma; 15 Benfica; 16 Ajax.
Third Seeds
17 Werder Bremen; 18 Celtic; 19 Schalke '04; 20 Stuttgart; 21 Steaua Bucharest; 22 CSKA Moscow; 23 Sporting Lisbon; 24 Lazio.
Fourth Seeds
25 Marseille; 26 Rangers; 27 Shakhtar Donetsk; 28 Besiktas; 29 Olympiacos; 30 Anderlecht; 31 Dynamo Kiev; 32 Levski Sofia.