Messi Named Tops in Europe, Intriguing Returns for Zlatan, Kaka and Eto’o

The draw for the group stage of the 2009-10 UEFA Cham­pi­ons League was held Thurs­day in Monaco. Last season’s final­ists face some tough going but they are not alone in that regard. FC Barcelona will begin their tro­phy defence in Group F with games against FC Inter­nazionale Milano, FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Rubin Kazan while some long away trips are loom­ing for Man­ches­ter United FC who were drawn in a group with CSKA Moscow and Besiktas.

The Inter — Barca matchup is intrigu­ing as the two clubs con­ducted a mas­sive swap of star strik­ers over the sum­mer. Head­ing to Italy was Samuel Eto’o (plus a mas­sive amount of cash to Inter) while Zla­tan Ibrahi­movic joined Barcelona. Another player who was the cen­tre of a big money trans­fer will also be given an imme­di­ate return to his old stomp­ing grounds. Brazil­ian play­maker Kaka and his Real Madrid galac­tico pals will face AC Milan. Mar­seille and FC Zurich round out Group C but have to be hop­ing for some major upsets if they have any chance of advanc­ing. Real Madrid will have all the moti­va­tion they need with this season’s final being hosted at their home stadium.

Bay­ern Munich, who have strug­gled out of the gate this sea­son, are up against Juven­tus, French cham­pi­ons Bor­deaux and Mac­cabi Haifa in Group A. Based on their cur­rent form, I just can­not see Bay­ern pro­gress­ing. It’s much too early for pre­dic­tions but the German-based side has much work to do under new man­ager Louis Van Gaal if they are to improve results.

The groups are as fol­lows:
Group A: Bay­ern Munich, Juven­tus, Bor­deaux, Mac­cabi Haifa.
Group B: Man­ches­ter United, CSKA Moscow, Besik­tas, Wolfs­burg.
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Mar­seille, FC Zurich
Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL Nicosia
Group E: Liv­er­pool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debreceni
Group F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan
Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, Stuttgart, Unirea Urz­iceni
Group H: Arse­nal, AZ Alk­maar, Olympiakos, Stan­dard Liege

Prior to the draw, UEFA awarded Barca for­ward Lionel Messi the 2009 Euro­pean Foot­baller of the Year and Best For­ward, while his team­mate Xavi Hernán­dez was not sur­pris­ingly named last season’s Top Mid­fielder. Man­ches­ter United’s Edwin Van der Sar was named Top Goal­keeper and Chelsea cap­tain John Terry picked up his sec­ond con­sec­u­tive Top Defender award.

Tagged as: eto, Kaka, lionel messi, xavi, zlatan ibrahimovic