UEFA Champions League 08-09 – Group Stage Draw LIVEBLOG
This article refers to an earlier version of the Champions League draw. Go to the latest Champions League draw article.
The DRAW for the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League Group Stage took place today in Monaco. Soccerlens covered the event LIVE, giving you the groups as they unfolded.
We also got to see the winners of the 2008 UEFA Player of the Year awards.
Full results of the Draw & Awards after the jump.
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UEFA Champions League 2008-09 Group Stage
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Group A . |
Group B . |
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Group C . |
Group D . |
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Group E . |
Group F . |
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Group G . |
Group H . |
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For an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS of the groups of Inter Milan, Roma, Juventus, and Fiorentina, see the post below:
UEFA Champions League – Inter, Roma, Juventus, Fiorentina GROUPS Analyzed
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UEFA Player of the Year Awards
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Best Goalkeeper: Petr Cech (Chelsea)
Best Defender: John Terry (Chelsea)
Best Midfielder: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Best Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
Best Club Footballer of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
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18:59: This completes the SOCCERLENS LIVEBLOG coverage of the UEFA Champions League 08-09 Group Stage Draw. Thanks for watching! Only a few weeks left till it all begins! 
18:56: And the winner is… Cristiano Ronaldo. Wow. I’m stunned. NOT.
Fully deserved for Ronaldo. Also a prime candidate to the Ballon d’Or. My picks for 2nd and 3rd: Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Lionel Messi.
18:54: Time to announce the European Club Footballer of the Year award. 20 nominees for this one.
18:51: This completes the DRAW! More ceremonies undergoing, presenting a charity. Hey look who’s here. Zinedine Zidane making an appearance, alongside UEFA president Michel Platini.
18:50: ATLETICO MADRID with Liverpool, PSV, and Marseille. Darn, this one’s also a toughie.
BATE BORISOV with Real Madrid, Juventus, and FC Zenit. Two very clear favorites here… on paper.
18:49: ANORTHOSIS (who beat a big team to get here… can’t remember who now) with Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, and Panathinaikos. Anorthosis are from Cyprus by the way.
18:47 DYNAMO KIEV with Arsenal, Porto, and Fenerbahce. After the hot Turkish soil, the Gunners will have to travel to the cold weather of Ukraine. Not easy…
18:45: CFR (yeah, don’t know them either… they’re Romanian) go with Chelsea, Roma, and Bordeaux.
18:44: FIORENTINA with Lyon, Bayern, and Steaua Bucharest. Not a good draw for the Italians…
18:43: AALBORG with Man Utd, Villareal, Celtic.
18:42: Fourth and LAST pot to go!!!!
18:41: Best Forward award goes to… Cristiano Ronaldo. Was there really any doubt?
18:39: Now Eusebio presenting the Best Forward in the UEFA Team of the Year.
18:39: MARSEILLE with Liverpool and PSV.
STEAUA BUCHAREST with Bayern and Lyon. Can it get any easier for the German champions?
18:38: PANATHINAIKOS with Inter Milan and Werder Bremen. José, you lucky devil… -.-
CELTIC with Man Utd and Villareal!! This oughta be interesting…
18:37: FC BASEL with Barcelona & Sporting Lisbon. Pep Guardiola must be satisfied…
18:36: FC ZENIT with Real Madrid and Juventus. Groan… I just hope Juve play them early on. Hate Russian Winter games.
18:35: FENERBAHCE with Arsenal & Porto. Always a tough away game in Turkey for Wenger’s boys.
18:34: BORDEAUX with Chelsea & Roma.
18:33: Time for POT 3!!!
18:32: The announcer is talking about a “clean sweep for Chelsea” in the Team of the Year awards. That leads me to believe the Goalkeeper award went to Petr Cech.
18:31: Midfield player of the year: Frank Lampard.
18:30: Chelsea with Roma!! The Giallorossi dodged the Man Utd bullet there… but is Chelsea really a better deal?
Arsenal with Porto.
Lyon with Bayern!! Can someone wipe that smile off of Klismann’s face?
Inter Milan with Werder Bremen.
18:29: Liverpool with PSV!
Barcelona with Sporting!!
Man Utd with Villareal!!
18:26: Real Madrid with Juventus!!!! Brings back memories from 1998. BAD memories for me. 
18:25: Phew! Finally back to the draw.
18:22: …and John Terry wins the Best Defender award. A great defender, has to work on his penalties.
18:20: False alarm, the draw will have to wait a little. Best defender in the UEFA Team of the Year being handed out. Milan and Italy legend Franco Baresi doing the honours.
18:19: Here we are… pot 2 begins now. Start biting your nails….
18:17: Each team from pot 1 is being drawn at the moment, and placed in each one of the 8 groups. Won’t bother outlining it here, I’ll wait till we finally have two teams being matched.
18:15: The DRAW begins!!!
18:11: DRAW procedure are now explained. The usual: teams from the same pot cannot be drawn together, teams from the same country cannot be drawn together.
18:10: Ex-Roma legend Bruno Conti just introduced. The Stadio Olimpico of Rome will host this year’s final, so Conti jokingly said “This time I’ll be in the final for sure!”
18:05: UEFA Team of the year awards being handed out. Peter Schmeichel was just presenting the Goalkeeper award (sorry, missed who it was).
18:04: Finally managed to connect to the bloody site! UEFA.com must be swamped right now.
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Here are the four pots:
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| Club | ||
| Manchester United (ENG, holders) | ||
| Chelsea (ENG) | ||
| Liverpool (ENG) | ||
| Barcelona (ESP) | ||
| Arsenal (ENG) | ||
| Lyon (FRA) | ||
| Inter Milan (ITA) | ||
| Real Madrid (ESP) |
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| Club | ||
| Bayern Munich (GER) | ||
| PSV Eindhoven (NED) | ||
| Villarreal (ESP) | ||
| Roma (ITA) | ||
| Porto (POR) | ||
| Werder Bremen (GER) | ||
| Sporting Lisbon (POR) | ||
| Juventus (ITA) |
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| Club | ||
| Marseille (FRA) | ||
| Zenit (RUS) | ||
| Steaua Bucharest (ROU) | ||
| Panathinaikos (GRE) | ||
| Bordeaux (FRA) | ||
| Celtic (SCO) | ||
| Basel (SUI) | ||
| Fenerbahçe (TUR) |
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| Club | ||
| Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) | ||
| Fiorentina (ITA) | ||
| Atlético Madrid (ESP) | ||
| Dynamo Kiev (UKR) | ||
| CFR Cluj (ROU) | ||
| Aalborg (DEN) | ||
| Anorthosis (CYP) | ||
| Bate Borisov (BLR) | ||
Group matches will be played on the following dates:
16/17 September
30 September/1 October
21/22 October
4/5 November
25/26 November
9/10 December
The final will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Wednesday 27 May 2009.
Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina are two of the toughest teams in Pot Four; Zenit, Celtic and Fenerbahce would be three to avoid from Pot Three; and in Pot Two Sporting, Villareal and PSV will be the weakest links. Lyon are the weakest in Pot One.
Will have updates for you once the team of the year and the draw is complete. Till then, speculate away….
Topics: Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Bundesliga, Celtic, Chelsea, English Premier League, Eredivisie, Fiorentina, Inter Milan, Juventus, La Liga, Ligue 1, Liverpool, Lyon, Manchester United, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Roma, Scottish Premier League, Serie A, UEFA Champions League, Villarreal
Football News 24/7
Atletico Madrid and Fiorentina are 2 nasty teams in Pot 4. Bremen, PSV, Sporting Lisbon are weak for Pot 2. Basel is weak for Pot 3. Let’s hope for a nice Bayern Munich draw of: Liverpool, Basel and Bate Borisov!
August 28th, 2008 @ 09:50My nightmare draw would be.
Liverpool
Bayern
Zenit
Athliti/Florentina
can someone tell me what time the draw starts at?
August 28th, 2008 @ 10:595pm BST
August 28th, 2008 @ 11:08celtic need soome easier opposition after facing the likes of man u, ac milan, barcelona and benfica int the last 4 years repeatedly. for once i’d like to cruise through the group stages and not struggle. there’s only so much a heart can take at my age…
August 28th, 2008 @ 11:31Best:
Man Utd, Bayern Munich, Celtic, Fiorentina
Wrost:
Man Utd, PSV, Steaua, Bate Borisov
Seeing Man Utd play a tense, nerve-wrecking match against Europe’s top teams sure beats the prospect of them struggling against the smaller teams.
August 28th, 2008 @ 12:24I think we can see Real Madrid in pot two next year if they underperform again… that would be marvelous for the competition.
August 28th, 2008 @ 12:26Lyon seem to be out of place in pot A, although taking european performances not how a team looks on paper into account i think Andrei is right Real Madrid are on the verge of pot B.
August 28th, 2008 @ 12:56Thanks amhed i knew it started on skysports at half four but i just want to watch the draw.
August 28th, 2008 @ 12:57No doubt there will be surprises/group of deaths.
Pot 1: 4 English, 2 Spainish, 1 Italian and 1 French
Pot 2: 2 Italian, 2 German, 2 Portuguese, 1 Spanish, 1 Dutch
Wonder if Unitd will meet Zenit … …
Milan and Ajax are missing … …
August 28th, 2008 @ 12:57Inter seem out of place in pot A by consistently failing to deliver
August 28th, 2008 @ 14:08my team (liverpool) should get their draw against an easy team so i can score or even if it’s against manchester united or chelsea i’ll be eager to score along side my captain gerrard robbie and dirk.we should win the champions league if we have teamwork!
August 28th, 2008 @ 15:06Who’s the female host?
August 28th, 2008 @ 17:16Good game, Real and Juventus
August 28th, 2008 @ 17:27Real, Juventus and Zenit SP woots
August 28th, 2008 @ 17:36Nice Bayern draw. Although, I wish it wasn’t Fiorentina from pot 4. Still, if we can’t go through in that group I don’t know what to say.
August 28th, 2008 @ 17:49chelsea get the clean sweep? you have to be kidding me. Cech was injured, Terry was injured, Lampard is probably the only player who deserves it out of that trio…
August 28th, 2008 @ 18:06dynamo kiev is not from russia, by the way, but from Ukraine
August 28th, 2008 @ 18:22Can someone please tell me who’s the nice laddy that performed the draw ?
August 28th, 2008 @ 18:34Corrected Dmitry. Sorry bout that.
August 28th, 2008 @ 18:46haha Lampard but seriously though who really won the midfield award?
August 28th, 2008 @ 19:16Our group is the 2nd hardest i my opinion, first madrids. Liverpool and Athleti should still go through though.
August 28th, 2008 @ 19:18Terry wasn’t even the best defender on his own team. Carvalho had a better year than Terry. I’d say that even if Terry had hit that penalty kick in the shootout.
August 28th, 2008 @ 20:09Liverpool need to improve their poor game that they played last night but we should go through.
CHELSEA’S FRANK LAMPARD DID NOT DESERVE THE AWARD
August 28th, 2008 @ 20:57Porto will be tricky for us, they have a large bulk good players still at the club like Quaresma, Fenerbahce will be tough one after seeing how they nearly KO Chelsea at some point of last years UCL.
Toni to visit his old club, Fiorentina
United face a banana skin here in the form of Villareal, as the last time they face them, The Red Devils did not make it past the group stage.
August 28th, 2008 @ 23:40Wow, a clean sweep for Chelsea. I suppose EVDS, Vidic, Ferdinand, Scholes were all insignificant to United’s success last season whereas Cech, Terry and Lampard were all significant to Chelsea’s lack of success last season? Maybe I’m being a little bitter, but come on. I can understand maybe Lampard winning the midfielder prize but Cech and Terry? Cech is a great goalie and Terry is a great defender but there’s no way they deserved those prizes over EVDS or Vidic or Ferdinand.
August 29th, 2008 @ 02:37Two years ago it was hard to separate Terry and Ferdinand but not last season. Rio was head and shoulders the best defender in Europe. Terry getting the award is a joke.
August 29th, 2008 @ 06:20Lampard wasn’t even the best midfielder at Chelsea. Give me Essien or Ballack any day.
Cech is fair ennough.
tell us the lady name!!!:))
August 29th, 2008 @ 09:41Every group apart from group F has a clear two clubs who are superior. This draw fixing is doing my head in, they paired us with Athletico to make good TV and give us on of the easiest teams in pot B to make sure we still progress.
August 29th, 2008 @ 11:37I found her! Melanie Winiger!! 29 years old!
August 29th, 2008 @ 14:03Serbia is obviously lost in cyberspace!
August 30th, 2008 @ 03:11AaB Aalborg rules!!! go AaB
August 31st, 2008 @ 16:00Hello guys, can anybody explain why Fiorentina had only 2 groups that they could be drawn onto. If you look closely, there’s 3 groups which already have Italian clubs ( Inter, Juventus, Roma) and Aalborg was picked first from pot # 4, so that leaves 4 available groups that Fiorentina could have been in. The reason why I’m asking its because I didn’t want Fiorentina to be drawn onto the same Group as Steaua since Mutu is Romanian ( duh) and him playing vs a Romanian club is just useless tension. If you have any idea please let me know at levisg@gmail.com
August 31st, 2008 @ 16:29if anyone finds the name of that pretty lady please post it; lots of people will be gratefull.
September 1st, 2008 @ 14:55Why is it that quaresma wants to leave fc porto?
September 1st, 2008 @ 16:12Why is porto not a strong team?
September 1st, 2008 @ 16:23I think ronaldo is the best player.
September 1st, 2008 @ 16:32i would have to disagree in best goal keeper
November 10th, 2008 @ 19:02my vote goes to Gianluigi Buffon starting keeper of juventus second would b Casillas from real madrid n
third Petr Cech chelsea