We’re in Group A- Bayern, Juve, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
By: alessio | August 27th, 2009Champion’s League draw:
Group A
Bayern Munich
Juventus FC
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa
First glance, it seems pretty obvious this is a 3-way fight for those 2 spots, and Maccabi Haifa is going to be 4th. European football is full of upsets though, so it is possible for them to push for 3rd or even 2nd, but unlikely.
Bayern Munich has been less than impressive in their opening few weeks under Louis van Gaal, having one of their worst league starts in a while. As far as Pot 1 draws go, this is a good one. A big enough team to make us bring our A-game mentality, but one we can definitely defeat, as we have in the past. Recent reports have said Robben will be joining them. As Molinaro marked the shit out of him last season, I’m not too worried.
Bordeaux is the wild-card for me, they had a decent run in Roma’s group last season and of course won the league title in France with ex-Milanista Gourcuff as their star player. Ex-Interista Laurent Blanc who was briefly linked to the Juve bench continues to coach the team. This is a team we can get a positive result against at home and away, as long as we mark Gourcuff well.
Maccabi Haifa I know zero about, other than they are from Israel. I would imagine they are the league champions or something to get here (too lazy to look it up, maybe when I do a proper preview) and they should be the whipping boys of the group.
Overall I’m satisfied with the draw, we saw with Inter (and Juve) last season what easy groups can sometimes do. I mean, look at our record, 2-1, 2-0 against Real Madrid (6 pts= maximum), 1-0 and 0-0 against Zenit (4 pts) and then 2-2 and 0-0 against BATE, who we were supposed to crush. That’s what the big-game mentality is all about, I suppose.
Also send a prayer Didier Deschamp’s way, his Marseille has been drawn into a very difficult group with Milan and Real Madrid.
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“Now Legrottaglie and I play with eyes closed together as I’m used to playing with him,” affirmed the former Fiorentina player to calcioblog.it.
“The understanding is very important for a central duo. Cannavaro had played so much with [Lilian] Thuram that he created an exceptional understanding, but we still need to improve.
“Playing together in the national team improves our automatism. Right now there’s a lot of talk about Chiellini and Cannavaro, but I’m sure that Legrottaglie will play many games.”
I love how Cannamerda waltzed into the team despite crap form the last 3 years, why, because he’s the Nazionale captain! (though buffon should be)
Posted from
United States
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im really optimistic about this draw….we can, and should, finish first…..btw, who do we play in the end, is it the teams from group B, if it is, United will definitely finish 1st so we really should avoid them this early on
Posted from
Germany -
Bordeux, just mark gourcuff and chamakh (if he stays) and attack them.
i watched some matches for them out of curiousity and they are much too reliant on gourcuff…and their defence isnt that great eitherBayern would be a bit tougher, of course that is if they dont keep up their recent crap form…they have quality attackers and quality wingers (ribery, and robben apparently), but they lost a lot in the backline in
Lucio…I will be be super pissed if we even drop one point against macabi
I hope we top this group so we have a better chance in the advanced rounds, plus it will give the team a good morale boost to top a tough group
Forza JuvePosted from
Germany -
Holymann, another draw is made after the group stages where top teams only face the 2nd placed teams…and teams from the same nation cant be drawn together
Posted from
Germany -
“Now Legrottaglie and I play with eyes closed together as I’m used to playing with him,”
See, now that just sounds dirty to me.
Posted from
United States -
Milan and Inter’s groups are more difficult.
Bayern is good not great. I think Bordeaux is a more difficult game. They’re form is really impressive this season already and they didn’t lose any one of importance from last season. Chamakh is a legit striker and growing into a star. Gourcuff, despite already being a flat out star, is still growing.
I think this group compares to last years pretty well. Madrid weren’t as good as there repuation, Zenit was supposed to be a very dangerous 3rd team and BATE was happy to be there.
1. Juve
2. Bordeaux
3. Bayern
4. HaifaPosted from
Germany -
BTW, I happen to think that Inter’s group is much harder. I mean, come on BARCELONA? I am pretty sure that the sun shines directly out of their butts and their farts smell like rainbows.
Then, we have some scary Eastern European teams – one of which we have to play in the dead of winter, likely in sub-zero temperatures. Juve has to go to… France, Germany, and Israel. Come on, you guys got off easy.
Posted from
United States -
hmmm, we are still lucky to have group like this, given that we were in the pot 2 and the probability to meat english team and barca is 5/7. i’m pretty sure we will pass this group like the way we did.
the only problem we have currxently is the curse against english teams. ferrara should start to think how we’re gonna get rid of it if we face english team again. i don’t want experience with Liverpool,Arsenal,and Chelsea happened again !!
Posted from
Australia -
Johonna I agree about Barcelona (having lived in Spain during last season, I am so sick of hearing shit about them) but other than them, you just have to focus on 2nd. No big deal.
Zaki brings up a good point as English teams have always been our downfall, but I’m ready to take any of them on. (in the Spring)
Posted from
United States -
Also, does this remind anyone else of 2004-2005? Some other team from Tel Aviv and Bayern Munich. Let’s hope it goes like it did back then.
Posted from
United States -
And lastly for now, a few interesting notes about the draw-
Maccaba Haifa- Nothing.
Bayern Munich- Diego and Schweinsteiger will face off against the team they were heavily linked with for a while, and it’s a homecoming for Hasan Salihamidzic who played at Bayern for 9 years.
Bordeaux- Gourcuff returns to Italy after failing at Milan to play Juventus, and Ferrara will coach against Laurent Blanc, ex-teammates back in the day at Napoli and then rivals when Blanc moved to Inter.Posted from
United States -
Definitely a tough group for Bordeaux (come on Johonna, Barca is only one team)
While I do have confidence in the squad, I don’t think Bordeaux performs well in in these international competitions. The top priority for Blanc is to “stay near the top of the table” in L1 and play Champions League every season. It isn’t “win league again” or “quality for knockout round”. I know that the priority definitely won’t be put on CL and Blanc will not sacrifice performance in the league for performance in CL. Try we will, but we won’t go all out.
Bordeaux will definitely put up a fight but I think the group goes to Bayern and Juve.
Posted from
Germany -
I’m rather pleased with this draw. We are able to beat any of those teams, and I hope we do so.
I’d like to see Bordeaux at the second place, right behind us.
Posted from
Poland -
I believe the Robben to Bayern is official according to TMW
Posted from
United States -
was watching the Europa cup qualifiers last nite n it seems Criscito continues to impress. following his good form last season, which has been affirmed by his azzuri call-up and fine pre-season form i wonder y juve did not exercise the buy-out option for him.
i’d rate him above anything we’ve got @ LB ATM, but apparently the big guns think differently
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Let’s not forget the start Chelsea had to their season last year guys.
Bayern have plenty of time to turn their start around, let’s hope they don’t get that same momentum going ahead of the CL matches.
Posted from
United States -
Seems there’s still a lot of confusion over the Criscito deal. Ned, we didn’t have a buy-out option on him because we owned all of his rights. We bought him from Genoa in 06ish, and then sent him on loan for Spring 08 after not doing so well in Turin. Then we sent him on loan to Genoa again for the entire last season, with the right to buy him on co-ownership for 5.5million euro. They exercised that right, we couldn’t do anything about it.
Posted from
United States -
I see ur point alessio…He was brought in with great expectations,but had one really bad game in 07/08 where he was ’schooled’ by Totti and since then the board seem to have lost faith in him.The whole affair smacks of an error in judgment even moreso considering that none of those whom we have deployed @ LB since ‘Mimmo’ left can be considered an improvement on d kid.
I really hope we can tie up the Grosso deal(signing Rafinha as well be Nirvana,but i don’t think it’ll happen!)bcuz we need some enterprise out wide to support Diego n our forwards;lest we become overly Diego-dependentPosted from
United Kingdom -
imo, you guys have the most difficult group. most of the other groups have clear cut 1-2s and subsequent also-rans. not so for yours. best of luck, lets do italy proud.
Posted from
United States -
Ned, Criscito was a center back when he was with us. At that time Chiellini was our left back.
Posted from
Germany -
Funny how they’ve swapped, huh.
Posted from
United States -
Employing Criscito in the center was another major gaffe by Ranieri. Anyone seeing him play for the U21s could see that he was a natural left wing back. And with his small frame, the odds were always stacked against him playing in the center of the defence.
Posted from
Trinidad And Tobago -
Spot-On Nnahoj! n to make matters worse he was paired in central defence with a jorge andrade who was playing in italy for the first time…two new-comers in the heart of defence…high-octane stuff,requiring handling by the most adroit of alchemists; unfortunately ranieri was not one!
People said back then that he was the new cannavaro(perhaps bcuz of his small size)but it took better alchemists than ranieri(read casiraghi & gasperini) to unmask his true worth
I guess it’s a closed chapter now,but i think the moral of the story is that we need to more tactful in handling our youngsters(admittedly we’ve done better in that regard than our contemporaries).There’s no point sending them off to siena and bari for ‘experience’ if we do not re-integrate afterwards.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
From Bayern’s point of view, this is a very tough group. They got arguably the toughest (or top 2) team from Pots 2 and 3. Juve, as been mentioned earlier, should be glad to avoid any of the English teams + Barcelona.
Posted from
Germany -
guys
i am a fan of Macabi Haifa, and altough we are aware that we are the underdog here, but dont be so cocky.
last we managed to get to group stage we bit man united 3-0 among other results and finished 3rd
again, i am not saying we are better, but in football anything can happaned
this is why love this gamePosted from
Israel
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