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Champions League 2016/17 - Group E: CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco

Gonna revise the groups I would like to see should everything go to plan with teams qualifying. Not sure if we will end up with anything like these groups but it would be nice to avoid Barca, Bayern, Atletico and Real Madrid and gives us a much better chance of actually being able to not just qualify from the group but win it.

1st Choice:
Benfica
Bayer Leverkusen
Tottenham Hotspur
Celtic

2nd Choice:
PSG
Porto
Tottenham Hotspur
Club Brugge

3rd Choice:
CSKA Moscow
Borussia Dortmund
Tottenham Hotspur
AS Roma
 
Libero said:
3rd Choice:
CSKA Moscow
Borussia Dortmund
Tottenham Hotspur
AS Roma
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I would absolutely love this group.
a) I will have a chance to see Spurs another time in Russia. Also the match should be played on CSKA new stadium (not in the sh*thole of Khimki where CSKA used to play their last CL games after Luzhniki has been closed for renovation).
b) We'll have chance of revenge against BvB in a proper tournament.
c) Roma under Spaletti looks pretty exciting.
 
I want one of the big clubs Barcelona, Real or Bayern.
They will take 6 points off the 2nd seed team and I fancy us with the counter attacking pressing style we play to get some points off them.
Also it would be a huge learning opportunity.
Better off playing on of these teams in advance in a group game and learning from it before facing one of them in the knock outs.
 
Modric THFC said:
I want one of the big clubs Barcelona, Real or Bayern.
They will take 6 points off the 2nd seed team and I fancy us with the counter attacking pressing style we play to get some points off them.
Also it would be a huge learning opportunity.
Better off playing on of these teams in advance in a group game and learning from it before facing one of them in the knock outs.
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I agree, plus, isn't part of being in the CL nights against the very best opposition? Test ourselves, improve as a team and I wouldn't be shocked if we could get a result against one of those teams. After all, this season we've been more than a match for any of the bigger sides in the Premier League. Let's see what can happen!
 
El Guepardo said:
I agree, plus, isn't part of being in the CL nights against the very best opposition? Test ourselves, improve as a team and I wouldn't be shocked if we could get a result against one of those teams. After all, this season we've been more than a match for any of the bigger sides in the Premier League. Let's see what can happen!
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Agree. Its what its all about. We have played Real Madrid, so for me would be great to see us play either Bayern Munich or Barcelona. If we go out, hey, we go out, at least it wont be in a qualifier and we have had another 6 matches in the 'big one' which can only be a good thing, and will leave the players wanting another taste of it.
 
Barca have won the Spanish league, which means there will be two Spanish sides in pot 1.
 
Napoli have secured a group stage spot and Monaco a qualifying spot.

CL seeding as it stands using the highest seeds, but probably not 100% accurate:

Pot 1:

Atletico or Real Madrid (CL winner)
Barcelona
Bayern
Leicester
Juventus
Benfica
PSG
CSKA Moscow

Pot 2:

Real or Atletico Madrid
Dortmund
Arsenal
Emirates Marketing Project*
EL winner (if Sevilla wins. Liverpool are currently just below PSV, but a win would probably see them in pot 3)
Porto*
Napoli
Leverkusen

Pot 3:

Basel
Donetsk*
Tottenham
Olympiakos*
Dinamo Kiev
Lyon
Villarreal*
Ajax*

Pot 4:

PSV
Sporting
Viktoria Plzen*
Club Brugge
Salzburg*
Celtic*
APOEL Nicosia*
Besiktas

The bold ones are guaranteed a place in the group stage.

The ones with an * would have to go through qualifying rounds.

Teams that could/will be involved in the qualifying rounds:

Champions (everyone have to go through at least two qualifying rounds): Olympiakos, Viktoria Plzen, Astra Giurgiu, FC Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, APOEL Nicosia, Legia Warzawa, Hapoel Beer Sheva, BATE Borisov, FC København, Celtic, IFK Norrköping, Ludogorets Razgrad, Rosenborg, Crvena Zvezda, Olympia Ljubljana, Garabag Agdam, AS Trencin, Ferencvaros, FK Astana, Dacia Chisinau, Dinamo Tbilisi, SJK Seinäjoki, FH Hafnarfjordur, Zrinjski Mostar, Vardar Skopje, Dundalk, Mladost Podgorica, Skenderbeu, F91 Dudelange, Crusaders Belfast, Zalgiris Vilnius, FK Liepaja, Valletta FC, Flora Tallinn, B36 Torshavn, The New Saints, Alashkert FC, FC Santa Coloma, Tre Penne Galazzano, Lincoln Red Imps

Non-champions (the first five enter at the playoff stage, the rest have to play each other for that privilege): Villarreal, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Emirates Marketing Project, Porto, Roma, Monaco, FC Rostov, Shaktar Donetsk, Ajax, Anderlecht, Young Boys, Fenerbache, Panathinaikos, Sparta Praha, Steaua Bucuresti

Teams with higher coefficient than Tottenham that could still qualify: Sevilla (as EL winners) and Manchester United (at the expense of City if they beat Bournemouth by 19 goals)
 
Are we guaranteed group stage now, if Liverpool win they don't take it and we get put into the 3rd qualifying round?
 
P.D. said:
Are we guaranteed group stage now, if Liverpool win they don't take it and we get put into the 3rd qualifying round?
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If Liverpool wins EL, they'll go directly to the group stage. Nothing will change for us or City (they will play 1 round of qualification anyway).
 
we wont really have any home advantage if we are playing at Wembley. Its funny how we always pull the bad straw in terms of timing. Will be a tough CL campaign whoever we get. I just hope we can attract better players now we are in the CL.
 
^^ Our experience the last time we qualified gave the lie to that old chestnut. Players don't come for Champions' League football, they come for the wages Champions' League regulars pay.
 
mudshark said:
^^ Our experience the last time we qualified gave the lie to that old chestnut. Players don't come for Champions' League football, they come for the wages Champions' League regulars pay.
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What, VDV would have turned up at the Lane had we offered him exciting Thursday nights away to Kuban Krasnodar and Ludogorets?

Nah. CL football definitely does give incentives for players to stay, and attracts new ones who would otherwise never have considered the club as an option at all.
 
Zenit are no longer in contention for a CL spot. Just a question of whether CSKA or Rostov win the league and thus go straight into the group stage.

Club Brugge need one point from their final two games to secure their place.

Europa League final is on Wednesday.

Other that that it's only minor leagues with games still left to play.
 
Jordinho said:
Zenit are no longer in contention for a CL spot. Just a question of whether CSKA or Rostov win the league and thus go straight into the group stage.

Club Brugge need one point from their final two games to secure their place.

Europa League final is on Wednesday.

Other that that it's only minor leagues with games still left to play.
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We have a Club Brugge fan at work and can tell you that they have definitely won the league - Belgium uses a head to head system to calculate league positions so although Anderlecht could get 6 points and draw level the're behind on head to head having played Brugge twice thus Brugge are the champions of Belgium.
 
In Greece it ended like this

1. Olympiakos 85
2. Panathinaikos 55
3. AEK Athens 54
4. PAOK 45
5. Panionios 44

The teams finishing 2nd to 5th are now having a playoff for the final CL spot, where Panathinaikos and AEK started on 2 points. How do they come up with this stuff?
 
DubaiSpur said:
What, VDV would have turned up at the Lane had we offered him exciting Thursday nights away to Kuban Krasnodar and Ludogorets?

Nah. CL football definitely does give incentives for players to stay, and attracts new ones who would otherwise never have considered the club as an option at all.
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Van der Vaart wouldn't have come at all, if his transfer to Bayern hadn't collapsed at the last minute. Exceptions to the rule may be found, but I don't think your counter-example is sufficient to dismiss the idea that, in the main, top, CL-quality players (and their agents), unless their options have been narrowed aren't likely to consider the wages we pay worth their time.
 
mudshark said:
Van der Vaart wouldn't have come at all, if his transfer to Bayern hadn't collapsed at the last minute. Exceptions to the rule may be found, but I don't think your counter-example is sufficient to dismiss the idea that top, CL-quality players (and their agents), unless their options have been narrowed aren't likely to consider the wages we pay worth their time.
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It's evidence against it, at least. Irrespective of the possibility that we were only VDV's backup, imagine an identical scenario where we came to him with an offer to choose us over a CL club, and pointed to our EL status and exciting mid-week trips to towns populated by abandoned Uralvagonzavod plants emitting clouds of rust and depression as reasons for him to join; d'you think he would? There are possibly other players that could bolster my argument, but at present I'm too befuddled to point 'em out (examples of players choosing CL clubs over EL ones even when wages offered remain relatively equal); however, I stand by my assertion that you're dismissing the benefits of CL football too easily.
 
DubaiSpur said:
It's evidence against it, at least. Irrespective of the possibility that we were only VDV's backup, imagine an identical scenario where we came to him with an offer to choose us over a CL club, and pointed to our EL status and exciting mid-week trips to towns populated by abandoned Uralvagonzavod plants emitting clouds of rust and depression as reasons for him to join; d'you think he would? There are possibly other players that could bolster my argument, but at present I'm too befuddled to point 'em out (examples of players choosing CL clubs over EL ones even when wages offered remain relatively equal); however, I stand by my assertion that you're dismissing the benefits of CL football too easily.
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I'm not dismissing them entirely, I'm really just saying I don't think anybody should get carried away with expectation just because we're in it.
 
mudshark said:
I'm not dismissing them entirely, I'm really just saying I don't think anybody should get carried away with expectation just because we're in it.
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Well, I could agree there. If people are saying 'go for Modric, go for Kroos, go for James Rodriguez, go for Bale, go for Reus', then yes, there's definitely an element of wishful thinking involved in imagining that just CL football can get us names like those.

But people like Batshuayi, Dahoud, Lacazette, Tielemans, and, should circumstances permit, disaffected names like Morata, Insigne and Saul...these players (below the band of 'elite', world-renowned footballers) who would hitherto have looked straight past us towards a meal ticket at one of the bigger boys or clubs *with* CL football might now be willing to give us a shot. That's the difference it makes. It won't get us top players in the top bracket, absolutely not. But it might help us get players in a somewhat higher bracket than the one we usually shop in, and disaffected footballers at top clubs (like VDV) who otherwise wouldn't give us the time of day when deciding where to move.
 
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