Topic: 2017/18 Champions League group stage draw. Thursday 24th August at 5pm

[idontknow]

What a brilliant group!!!

[Gerry Attrick]

Man City's group looks a bit tricky. They got the best pot 3 team possible and a decent pot 4 side. Could see them making heavy weather of it.

[stuartheal]

In touching distance of number six!

Joking aside, this is an excellent draw.

[jason67]

Sorry if it's already been posted but when do we play the games? Has it been announced or is that later?

[mersey_paradiso]

Man City's group looks a bit tricky. They got the best pot 3 team possible and a decent pot 4 side. Could see them making heavy weather of it.

They always do !

[lamonti]

Wow that is a cracking group

[TepidT2O]

We've drawn the bottom ranked team in two groups and the second bottom in the other!

Great in principle...

[Skeeve]

No complaints about that group after the way the pot 1 & 2 were drawn, we could have ended up with something much nastier than that, even if there's quite a lot of travel.

[Purple Red]

A moments silence for Apoel Nicosia please

It's not too bad they'll get into the Europa League via third...

[amirani]

Couldn't ask for a better draw. Play the kids. 

[johnj147]

happy with that draw 

[tossedandblown]

Maribor looks gorgeous. Awesome away trip for those going.

beautiful women in Slovenia too 

[Wabaloolah]

Redshite conspiracy.

Gonna pop over to GOT to enjoy some fewn

some serious weapons on there in fairness, moaning that they'll get a harder group in the Europa than we get in the CL!!!

Brilliant, love it!!

[killer-heels]

Chelsea and Spurs got tough games but Man City and Man Utd also got a long trip as well as us.

[Zoomers]

It's good to be back, now lets go and smash Arsenal!!

[Wabaloolah]

We've drawn the bottom ranked team in two groups and the second bottom in the other!

Great in principle...

don't tell the Bitters!!!

[sms1986]

Chelsea and Spurs got tough games but Man City and Man Utd also got a long trip as well as us.

We have the easiest group out of all of the English teams, I can see that five being cut down to at least three by the end of the group stage.

[Fromola]

Very good draw. Had we got Bayern-PSG or Juve-Barca we'd have to play out of our skins to go through and would likely be battling for a Europa League spot. Now we still need to get the job done but you'd be disappointed if we went out.

[BeautifulGame91]

We actually got the lowest ranked team from pot 1 , 2nd lowest ranked team from Pot 2 and lowest ranked team from entire draw

[burriana]

Just seen this on the Grauniad CL draw page. All the groups ranked by the combined Uefa coefficient of the teams involved..

Group H: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham, Apoel Nicosia 405.3
Group D: Juventus, Barcelona, Olympiakos, Sporting Clube de Portugal 394.111
Group B: Bayern Munich, Paris St-Germain, Anderlecht, Celtic 382.857
Group A: Benfica, Manchester United, Basel, CSKA Moscow 321.069
Group C: Chelsea, Atlético Madrid, Roma, Qarabag 320.907
Group F: Shakhtar Donetsk, Manchester City, Napoli, Feyenoord 299.596
Group G: Monaco, Porto, Beşiktaş, Leipzig 222.938
Group E: Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Liverpool, Maribor 208.922

[Red Beret]

I want a cakewalk to the trophy the way Man Utd breezed to the Europa last year.  Let the haters moan about us being lucky - it's not like they'll give us any bloody credit if we have it tough.

We should have enough in our locker to get through that group - then in January we can buy Keita and VVD for the knockout stages.

[Thepooloflife]

Good news - revenge on Sevilla ? Plus, remember travelling through Slovenia years ago when it was still part of the former Yugoslavia......can't wait to make that trip again !

[Arrowsmith]

Ha ha ha... how fitting, the Plastics go to FC Carrierbag.

[ggcc14]

I want a cakewalk to the trophy the way Man Utd breezed to the Europa last year. 

Simply not possible in this competition.

[Chrismonster]

Ha ha ha... how fitting, the Plastics go to FC Carrierbag.

[alvaro]

Great group. Means we can rotate more in CL rather then in PL. And Maribor is only 500km away!

I doubt that we can rotate too much. Spartak Moscow wont be a walkover and we cant take any chances against Maribor.

If Sevilla and Spartak go 6/6 against Maribor we are looking at needing a point tally of at least 12 points to qualify.

[riismeister]

Man Utd the last time they played Benifica and Basel in the group stage;



This time they've got a much better team from pot 4 to compete with.

[Chris~]

Great draw, no excuses to not qualify from that.

[CallumLFC]

We actually got the lowest ranked team from pot 1 , 2nd lowest ranked team from Pot 2 and lowest ranked team from entire draw

Devil's spawn. Fuckin RS.

[Fordy]

Great draw for us

[jambutty]

Where will Maribor play their home match?

[BeautifulGame91]

From twitter :

The Mendes derby : Man United vs Benifica

[Samie]

I doubt that we can rotate too much. Spartak Moscow wont be a walkover and we cant take any chances against Maribor.

If Sevilla and Spartak go 6/6 against Maribor we are looking at needing a point tally of at least 12 points to qualify.

You were going to be worried about any group we got weren't you? 

[TepidT2O]

Spartak currently 11th in their league....

[Red Beret]

Simply not possible in this competition.

To hear some pundits and rival fans you wouldn't think so.

In any case when I say "cakewalk" I'm simply saying I will happily take the easiest route to the trophy and not give a stuff what anybody thinks about us avoiding so called more difficult teams.

[ggcc14]

Where will Maribor play their home match?

In their stadium.

[alvaro]

You were going to be worried about any group we got weren't you? 

Im not worried, Im dissmissing the idea that we can show up with anything but our strongest XI until we qualify for the next round.

[newterp]

I recall a draw a few years back with Real and some easier teams and we shit the bed.

Different manager and different team this time

[mersey_paradiso]

Good news - revenge on Sevilla ? Plus, remember travelling through Slovenia years ago when it was still part of the former Yugoslavia......can't wait to make that trip again !

Maribor is fairly near the Austrian border and roughly the same distance from Ljubljana (the capital) and Zagreb (Croatia) - so quite a few options to get there/stay whoever's going...

[amirani]

In their stadium.

How do you know they're not doing a Spurs and playing at another ground?