Good draw for Olympiacos

28 August 2009 / 11:08:46 GRReporter

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On an official ceremony in Monaco yesterday Edwin Van Der Sar, John Terry, Xavier Hernández Creus, and Lionel Messi made the draw for the Champions League and distributed the 32 teams in 8 groups. The first games from the group phase are on September 15 and 16 and the final is on May 22, 2010 on Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. There is no easy or hard draw but comparing the groups, which include Milan with Real and Bayern and Juventus, Olympiakos was really lucky.

GROUP A: FC Bayern München, Juventus, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa FC

GROUP B: Manchester United FC, VfL Wolfsburg, PFC CSKA Moskva, Besiktas JK

GROUP C: AC Milan, FC Zürich, Real Madrid CF, Olympique de Marseille

GROUP D: APOEL FC, Chelsea FC, FC Porto, Club Atlético de Madrid

GROUP E: ACF Fiorentina, Liverpool FC, Debreceni VSC, Olympique Lyonnais

GROUP F: FC Rubin Kazan, FC Internazionale Milano, FC Barcelona, FC Dynamo Kyiv

GROUP G: AFC Unirea Urziceni, VfB Stuttgart, Rangers FC, Sevilla FC

GROUP H: Arsenal FC, Olympiacos FC, AZ Alkmaar, R. Standard de Liège

Regulations of the most commercial soccer tournament - the Champions League:

32 teams are divided into 8 groups with 4 teams in each. The first two teams continue to the direct eliminations phase and the third one continues its participation in the UEFA Europa League. 22 teams enter directly the group phase (21+ the holder of Barcelona Cup), instead of the 16 until now.

According to UEFA statute for the teams in the ranking:

Three teams enter directly from the 3 countries with highest ratio (England, Spain, and Italy).

Two teams of the countries between 4^th to 6^th place (France, Germany and Russia).

One team of the countries between 7^th to 12^th place. The other teams rank after the qualification rounds.

Upcoming Olympiacos games:

September 16

Olympiacos- AZ Alkmaar

September 29

Arsenal FC-Olympiacos

October 20

Olympiacos- R. Standard de Liège

November 4