Spanish and Italian Giants to Dominate Draw
Holder Real Madrid and seven other Spanish and Italian teams will dominate the draw for the second group stage of the Champions League on Friday.
Holder Real Madrid and seven other Spanish and Italian teams will dominate the draw for the second group stage of the Champions League on Friday.
UEFA has announced the seedings with Madrid, nine-time winner of the competition, among the top four in the draw, which takes place at 5:30 a.m. EST in Geneva.
The Spaniards, who reached the second stage after a loss of form following a dazzling opening to the European season, share prime billing with England's Manchester United, national rival Barcelona and Spanish champion Valencia.
The 16 teams that qualified from the first group phase will be separated into four 'pots with the top four seeds in pot one and therefore kept apart.
However, in a competition that still includes eight former champions, that will be no guarantee of an easy passage to the knockout stages.
Pot two, a secondary group of seeded teams, is dominated by Italian clubs, with England again supplying the only 'outsiders' as Arsenal is joined by Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.
The clubs in pot three are Deportivo La Coruna, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Roma and those in pot four are Lokomotiv Moscow, Ajax Amsterdam, Newcastle United and Basel.
The draw is governed by strict rules aimed at ensuring maximum potential for television entertainment and rights sales.
For example, no two teams from the same country can play each other at this stage of the competition and no two teams that met in the opening groups can be in the same group again.
The criteria, which means the four Italian sides through to the last 16 have to go into each of the four groups, leads to several permutations being guaranteed.
Manchester United, twice winner of the trophy, will meet one of the Italian clubs and Deportivo, which are seeded in the third group and unable to play a fellow Spanish side thereby assuring it of a place in United's group.
The two met in last season's quarterfinals, United winning 2-0 in Spain and 3-2 in the return at Old Trafford. They also met in the group stage the previous season, when Deportivo won 2-1 at home and 3-2 at Old Trafford.
Also in the group will be Juventus or Inter Milan and Lokomotiv Moscow, Ajax or Basel.
Top seed Real Madrid could meet any club from pot two except Arsenal which will face Roma, runner-up in Madrid's group. The other three Italian teams are ranked at the same level as the English champion and cannot be drawn against it.
Arsenal will also meet Barcelona or Valencia and either Lokomotiv, Ajax or Basel.
Madrid will also play either Bayer Leverkusen, the team it beat in last season's final in Glasgow, or fellow Germans Borussia Dortmund from the third-seeded group since it has played Roma already and cannot meet Spaniards Deportivo.
Among the other possibilities could be a magical return to Barcelona, one of his former clubs, for Newcastle's ageless coach Bobby Robson, providing the Catalans avoid Arsenal from pot two. That would mean it has to draw one of the three Italian clubs and, from pot three, one of the German teams.
The other surprise qualifier, the Swiss minnow Basel, is certain of glamorous opposition when its fixtures begin in late November and continue in December, February and March.
Basel cannot meet Valencia, since it has played it already, so it must face Madrid, United or Barcelona.
Coach Christian Gross may have tempted providence after his team eliminated Liverpool when he said "it would be nice to see Ronaldo here before Christmas" but his wish could come true.
The second phase begins on Nov. 26 and 27 with the second round of matches two weeks later before the competition takes a break until February.