When you think about how we started the last (and only) CL campaign, our recovery that year was in no small part due to two things: the emergence of a world class talent and a raft of experienced quality players as listed elsewhere. We have been lucky with the draw, but I am not at all convinced that this current squad - although talented - is strong enough or experienced enough to get through this group. I hope to be proved wrong!!
IMHO this is now all about ambition and ethos. Their predecessors set a benchmark of winning their group and averaging 3 goals per game. This squad had the best defence and 2nd best attack in the PL last season. Do not be complacent, but there is also nothing to fear.
Finishing what I started... Group A Paris Saint Germain Arsenal Basel Ludogorets Razgrad Group B Benfica Napoli Dynamo Kyiv Besiktas Group C Barcelona Man City Borussia Monchengladbach Celtic Group D Bayern Atletico Madrid PSV Eindhoven Rostov Group E CSKA Moscow Bayer Leverkusen Spurs Monaco Group F Los Ladrones do Madrid Borussia Dortmund Sporting Lisbon Legia Warsaw Group G Leicester Porto Club Brugge FC Copenhagen Group H Juventus Sevilla Lyon Dinamo Zagreb My main responses to the draw are... * Legia Warsaw will suffer from collective PTSD * The draw for Group C features more rigging than HMS Victory * Nobody's mentioned the Xhaka brothers will face each other in Group A, so I will * Brendan Rodgers' metamorphosis into Steve McClaren will be complete by mid-October * A more favourable draw than the one in 2010-11, so fingers crossed we make the most of what we were given
Anyone going Leverkusen? If so, any help on cheapest/ easiest way to travel (flights or ferry and then drive through France into Germany etc).
Best bit for me, I'm going Barcelona on the 21st October for a weekend break with a few mates, if I do indeed go Leverkusen on the Tuesday before, I'm fearing what my bank account will be looking like come the end of that month
Best month to be a nightmare imho. Pre season rust and cobwebs are well and truly gone, the team is in its stride whilst injuries and fatigue haven't started to pile up yet. Come out of that with CL qualification wrapped up and a strong league position and we're flying for the rest of the winter.
Flights all booked now. Ijust hope the tickets arrive in time.Have to wait for the ko stages to see a top team against us but probably the one of the best draws we could have had
Hope it doesn't go the same way as last time i.e. score a hatful in the group stage and dry up in the knockout stage. Happened in the Europa too. Thank God Spurs are out of that one.
Seems like there's a hell of a lot of tickets going for the CL game on the 13th... Not sure what the policy was with the group multi tickets but when i bought they only released seats up in the gods. General sale on the 6th, hope we fill it!
Didn't think we were playing on the 13th at all. Do you mean the first game against Monaco on the 14th? If so, I'm a bit disappointed - our first CL home game in 6 years you'd have thought we'd be able to fill it irrespective of the opposition.
