Thought I would create a thread for the champions league 2010 / 2011 now that we have completed the qualifying rounds.

Euro club index here

http://www.infostradasports.com/download/Euro_Club_Index.pdf

SAF will be fairly happy with the draw. Valencia have lost two or three of their star players, Rangers are not a real threat and somewhat an unknown team  from Turkey.

Chelsea and Arsenal have favourable draws but some travelling involved.

Spurs have a fairly tough group.... not much between them, Twente and Bremen.

Could have been a tougher draw for us, could have been easier. I think United probably have the easiest draw - Valencia have flogged off Silva and Villa, Rangers have their financial problems and the Turks lack ECL experience.

It doesn't take much foresight to work out which group is the Group of Death.

Europa League I know, but I simply couldn't resist.

Celtic rogered by Wolfswinkel

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/26/celtic-utrecht-europa-league

My mate from work travelled over to Utrecht for the game.......... Lennon should have never been given the managers job, he was a great servant to Celtic but has no experience as a manager.

UEFA do something positive for once. I especially like the reference to 'Europe's culture and tradition'. as it

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914/champions-league/2010/09/01/2098066/breaking-news-uefa-ban-vuvuzelas-from-all-champions-league

Let's not forget either that Celtic have had their fingers burned in the past with rookie managers- remember John Barnes in the 1999/2000 season? Of course, one would say (rightly) that Lennon has the advantage of having been a Celtic player and captain and knows the club inside out. However, the step up from being a player to being a manager is huge- it will be interesting to see how Lennon and Celtic peform when it comes to the business end of the season.

Can't grumble with Arsenals draw, it has been quite kind

Games kick off this week  Werder Bremen v Spurs  Gunners v Braga  MSK Zilina v Chelski and the so called battle of Britain Man U v Rangers

Spurs will do well to get a point at Germany especially with injuries to a cple of key players, have watched Braga a couple of times and have been quite impressed but i think Gunners will be to strong. Step into the unknown for Chelsea a trip to Slovakia with a ground capacity of only 11,000 the fans over there will be crazy chelsea players can expect a torrid time from the stands but Chelsea will take all 3 pts.

Finally Man U v Rangers.. a tie that puts my two teams together. I fully expect Man U to rip Rangers up for ass paper and score  at least 3 or 4 seriously it could be embarassing for the Gers, tho they do have an exceptional keeper who will need to be on top form come tuesday night. Weir (aged 40) v  Rooney is a no contest.

Chelsea, Arsenal & Man U to get 3 pts Spurs to get 1pt  IMO

I go along with that my only concern is with the Spurs game. I am tempted to put on a coupon for wins for chelsea, arsenal, man u and a loss for spurs.

Be interesting to see how arry sets up, will he be defensive? He certainly wont be able to be gun ho away in europe.

The key to success in Europe is patience.... its very important to have the ability to keep the ball and be able to change the pace of a game with a killer pass. The injured Modric is a player with all those abilities in abundance and Spurs may struggle without him and Defoe

The key to success in Europe is patience.... its very important to have the ability to keep the ball and be able to change the pace of a game with a killer pass. The injured Modric is a player with all those abilities in abundance and Spurs may struggle without him and Defoe

True

There group isnt that easy, will they be out of their depth I wonder , especially with key injuries

Two points lost as I see it. Bremen should have been 3 or 4 down at half time after some of the most esquisite football I've seen in the last few months. Then a sloppy goal and then game on.

Van Der Vaart is going to do a lot of damage in the PL this season, playing as he does in the hole behind the striker. Bremen spent much of the first half chasing his shadow.

Meanwhile, United fans not happy about the 9-0-1 system employed by Rangers.

HERE.

Very frustrating night for Man U... I was somewhat suprised by SAF team selection, however with a game against Liverpool at the weekend he may have thought he could have rested players and gave some hungry players a chance against a Rangers team on paper that should have been beaten.

It was a very typical Rangers european performance  the type that got them to the europa league final a couple of years ago. Walter set his team out to frustrate the living daylight out of the opponents and it did what it said on the tin. They will do the same at Ibrox and look to nick a goal.

Leaving out Nani, Berbatov and Scholes collectively Man Us most creative players  who have been outstanding so far certainly has raised an eyebrow or two given the scoreline. Tho playing against a team with 9 outfield players behind the ball is difficult the intricate passing through the middle was never going to work the exclusion of this players probably didnt matter.

Havent seen any of the Spurs action but i feel a draw in Germany is a decent result for them and a good start to their campaign.

Yep 2pts thrown away, if it was a two legged affair then yes great result. Spurs might regret that

I think the team selection fooled everyone? But Utd still had enough quality to win it. In saying that it is very very hard to break down an 11 man defence.

Horredous injury to Valencia as well.

A rubbish performance by Man U - and I enjoyed the link that Merc provided; much bickering between the red scum

And, nothing personal to the player, like (I wish him well) but it's a bonus that Baconface's skinny-looking squad has lost a player for the season.

The worry is that he might actually get some money to replace him in January, nothing personal as you say but Valencia was never going to be the next Ronaldo, whoever he goes and buys just might be

Good point. I'd have thought he'd want to go for an experienced player if anyone - and we'd know if they were good or not, unlike the situation with The Winker, who all we knew about was that he was tricky on the ball and fell over if you breathed on him.

But you never can tell with Man U. They could still shell out for quality - although not many teams want to part with a top class player in January.