At the end of last month, all eyes of the footballing world were fixed on the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, where the Champions League

draw for the group stages was revealed. The best 32 teams of European football were randomly placed into eight groups of four, offering football fans some mouthwatering group stage matches.
The competition kicks off on Wednesday and Thursday morning, with every team from every group competing all over Europe. As history suggests, it’s vitally important to start the campaign well and avoid any win or lose situations later in the group stage.
For those that are unaware of the process, there are rules that prevent certain teams from being placed in the same groups as one another.
For example, teams from the same country cannot be drawn into the same group – a rule UEFA conjured up to ensure each nation has someone to watch based on the commercialized aspect of television ratings, allowing viewers to have someone to cheer for rather than having compatriot teams knocking each other out very early in the competition.
Then there is the actual draw process itself. UEFA classes teams into four pots based on their ranking via a complex points system subjected to individual team performances added over a number of years. This means that pot one teams can’t play against the pot one teams, the pot two teams can’t play against the pot two teams and so-on.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the top teams have an easy run, far from it in fact. Nine time winners Real Madrid, largely tipped as favourites to take out the title with the acquisition of midfield maestro Luka Modric, are placed in the same group as reigning English Premier League champions Manchester City, as well as the reigning Dutch league champions Ajax.
Completing the group of death is reining German league champions Borussia Dortmund, who have overtaken Bayern Munich in recent years as the strongest team in Germany.
This certainly is the group of death. It’s an absolutely mouthwatering prospect featuring a complete group of reining league champions from their respective countries. Many footballing fans had dreamed of this group of death with the only difference being Juventus ahead of Ajax, but perhaps the journey to the Netherlands could prove tricky for teams further apart and could spring a few upsets.
Another tough group features reigning European champions Chelsea. The Blues look even better placed to win Europe’s top crown this time around and begin their title defence against reigning Serie A league champions Juventus, then with a long trip to Ukraine to face Shakhtar Donetsk.
Nordsjaelland of Denmark has also been placed amongst the powerhouses, and appear to be a potential three-pointer for the rest of the group. Largely unknown to most of the footballing world, perhaps Nordsjaelland could provide upsets and deny one of the more fancied sides from advancing, if not stealing a top two spot for themselves.
Always a threat is Barcelona, the highest ranked UEFA team. The Spanish giants, who usually receives a fairly generous group stage setup, face a slightly more difficult group this time around.
Alongside Barcelona is troublesome Portuguese opponents Benfica, who have won the Portuguese title a record 32 times and are coming off an undoubtedly disappointing 2nd place finish in the league last season. They will be looking to have a real go at Barcelona and believe they can progress to the knockout stages ahead of Scottish league champions Celtic, and Russian giant killers Spartak Moscow.
With a slightly easier draw is three-time Champions League winners Manchester United. The Red Devils are in a group with Braga of Portugal, who barely qualified beating Udinese on penalties in the play-off stages for a Champions League spot.
Another team hardly expected to threaten anyone is Romanian team CRF Cluj, who will be competing in their third ever Champions League group stage. They have never progressed beyond this point.
The most likely to be the number two team in the group is Turkish powerhouse Galatasaray, who may surprise Manchester United at home but will most likely finish behind the English side.
Group F is another to keep your eye on, with last year’s runner-up Bayern Munich placed alongside French side Lille and the always dangerous Spaniards Valencia. The discovery of the top two teams from this group should be expected to go down to the final games of the group stage.
Arsenal will be thankful of the draw they’ve been given, avoiding all Spanish sides which has been Arsenal’s downfall in recent years. It is still a tricky group with the likes of Shalke and reining French league champions Montpellier to contest the top spot. Arsenal must be careful not to go into these games overconfident, because they may crash out of the competition as a result.
Grant Thomas is a second-year Bachelor of Sports Journalism student at La Trobe University.