Champions League Draw: Tough Task For Arsenal But Chelsea Get It Easy

Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City all learned their fate as the draw for the Champions League group stages took place on Thursday evening.

Arsenal booked their place in the draw with a nervy 1-0 win over Besiktas at the Emirates last night and they’ve been rewarded with tough group that includes Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and Anderlecht in Group D.

Arsene Wenger will no doubt still be confident of progressing to the knockout stages, but the Gunners have some tricky away ties ahead of them.

Chelsea will be far happier with their draw as Jose Mourinho’s men are in Group G along with German side Schalke, Sporting Lisbon and Maribor. The Blues will be the heavy favourites to once again progress to the latter stages.

Manchester City were in pot 2 and will once again have to navigate past Bayern Munich, with the heavy weights in Group E along with CSKA Moscow and Italian side AS Roma. It’s another difficult test for the Premier League champions and it looks like they’ll have to fight it out with Roma if they want to get through.

Liverpool were in pot 3 and Brendan Rodgers will be pleased with his draw, with the Merseysiders in Group B along with reigning champions Real Madrid, FC Basel and Bulgarian minnows Ludogrets.

Here are the groups:

Group A: Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Olympikos, Malmo.

Group B: Real Madrid, Basel, Liverpool, Ludogrets.

Group C: Benfica, Zenit, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco.

Group D: Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray, Anderlecht.

Group E: Bayern Munich, Man City, CSKA Moscow, Roma.

Group F: Barcelona, PSG, Ajax, Apoel.

Group G: Chelsea, Schalke, Lisbon, Maribor.

Group H: Porto, Shakhtar, Athletic Bilbao, BATE.

So it’s difficult tests for Arsenal and particularly Manchester City, while Chelsea and Liverpool will be happy with their groups. However, all four Premier League sides should be confident of progressing to the knockout stages.