United and fierce rivals City await Champions League draw
CL draw
By Chris,
August 25 2011
The draw for the group stages of the Champions League takes place at 4.30pm on Thursday afternoon in Monaco. Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils are amongst the first seeds for the draw as fierce rivals Manchester City, placed in pot three, also await their group stage fate.
United are placed in pot one alongside the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
However, the Reds could still face a hugely challenging draw with the likes of AC Milan and CSKA Moscow in pot two.
Zenit St Petersburg and Ajax are amongst United’s possible opponents from pot three, whilst Borrusia Dortmund and Dinamo Zagreb are perhaps clubs Ferguson would prefer his side avoided from the bottom pot.
Despite having to come through a nervous qualifier against Udinese, struggling Arsenal are included amongst the first seeds – as are Chelsea.
A more favourable draw for United would perhaps be Benfica, Basle and Viktoria Plzen – though there is rarely room for complacency in Uefa’s leading club cup competition.
Man City, who enter the Champions League for the first time, are in pot three. The draw is structured so that teams cannot face their fellow countrymen at this stage.
The draw takes place at 4.45pm from Monaco and will be broadcast live on Eurosport and Sky Sports News.
There are also likely to be updates on BBC Radio Five Live and TalkSport.
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